A brilliant new collection of stories from a much loved and highly praised author. Stories for people who've grown up being told time is running out - and don't want it to . . . How do you ever know the whole story? How do you ever know even part of the story? How do you find meaning when chance and coincidence could, after all, just be chance and coincidence? In a celebration of connections and missed connections, an inquiry into everything from flies and trees and books to sex, art, drunkenness and love, Smith rewrites the year's cycle into a very modern calendar.

Contents:

• The Universal Story
• Gothic
• Being Quick
• May
• Paradise
• Erosive
• The Book Club
• Believe Me
• Scottish Love Songs
• The Shortlist Season
• The Heat of the Story
• The Start of Things