Name: Attrib. and Other Stories
ISBN: 9781910312162

Eley Williams

This debut collection from Eley Williams centres upon the difficulties of communication and the way one's thoughts may never be fully communicable and yet can overwhelm you. Attrib. celebrates the tricksiness of language just as it confronts its limits. Correspondingly, the stories are littered with the physical ephemera of language: dictionaries, dog-eared pages, bookmarks and old coffee stains on older books. This is writing that centres on the weird, tender intricacies of the everyday. A bold new collection from one of Britain's most original new writers.

Attrib. and Other Stories

abi a

You are so clever and you know so much, and I often think the only way that I could protect you (if you ever asked [because, you know, you would never need to be protected, and would kick me for trying— you are certainly standing close enough]) would be to snap your head off and roll it out of harm’s way for the nation’s sake. 

I don't know a thing, I wanted to say. I am not very clever but I am affectionate about knowledge. Let's start there.

this was hard for me because it was beautiful but also word salad but also maybe my head wasn’t screwed on tightly enough to appreciate it

Gary Homewood

Odd, inventive short stories preoccupied with language, its imprecision and ambiguity. Meandering focus, always interesting and original, attention to peculiar detail. Quirky and playful without being annoying or twee.