Set throughout Glasgow, Colette Paul’s poignant, sometimes hilarious stories follow a range of ordinary people negotiating the pitfalls of grown-up life – unplanned pregnancies, difficult exes, misbehaving children, sick pets, middling jobs, and returning to familiar places that no longer feel like home.
These are no simple tales of despair, however. With pitch-perfect dialogue and understated wit, A Complete Success wryly and intimately captures the isolation and miscommunication of middle age, the resonating impact of childhood failures, and the unshakable, untranslatable nature of the past.
In these compelling, unfailingly compassionate portraits of the complexity of modern Scottish life, Paul re-affirms her status as one of the country’s most essential writers of short fiction.
Praise for Whoever You Choose To Love:
"Fiction that shouldn’t be missed."
– Ali Smith, The Guardian
‘Stunningly perceptive, slick, quirky, powerful.’
– Henry Sutton, Esquire
‘So compelling it’s a wrench to put down.’
– Shari Low, Daily Record
‘Ordinary moments captured in transparent prose,with powerful undercurrents of meaning.’
– Laurence Phelan, Independent on Sunday
‘Wonderful.’
– Lottie Moggach, Time Out
‘A writer who knows her own mind, a mind that’s well worth knowing.’
– David Robinson, The Scotsman
“Impressive.”
– Gerard Woodward, TLS
