Book description
A dazzling collection of eleven interconnected stories from the bestselling, award-winning author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life, with everything that readers love about her novels—the inventiveness, the verbal felicity, the sharp observations on human nature, and the deeply satisfying emotional wallop.
Nothing is quite as it seems…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Normal Rules Don't Apply as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This collection of eleven fabulous interconnected stories includes a queen who makes one too many promises; a man who bets on a horse who speaks to him; and a family who may have done-in its patriarch. All this against the backdrop of a world-changing event which inevitably, irrevocably, touches every life on the planet.
Each story focuses on a character dealing not only with the emerging situation, but with the events already unwinding in their lives. Kate Atkinson draws these characters with such richness and honesty, they feel familiar: friends, coworkers, and family. Funny and tragic.
This collection brings together eleven stories, some linked by shared characters or plot elements that connect the overlapping lives of the characters, ranging from apocalyptic science fiction, a fairy tale queen to a talking horse, which gives a winning betting tip to a racegoer, Franklin. In a later story, Franklin uses his winnings to buy an engagement ring before marrying Connie and moving into her wealthy parents’ home, where a surprising fate awaits him.
One of the pleasures is its intelligent, unforced humour, much coming from coincidences, observations, witty connections, and surprises. The stories are cleverly written, and the characters…
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