Do you cover up or reveal it all; seek revenge or just reassurance; let the truth be naked as the day or cloaked in a night-time story? The men and women of Polly Samson's debut fiction all have stories to tell, pasts to forget, futures to forge. Manipulative or meek, used or using, all are aware of the power of truth, deception and little white lies to get what they want or sometimes what they deserve. Some are concerned with the economies of speech, those little 'kindnesses' which protect our loved ones but really ourselves; some investigate the warped logic which adults serve out to children to keep them 'innocent'; all are concerned with the beds we make and the lies we tell in them...

"Stunning, wholly original, by turns dark, clever, witty, moving. You've read nothing like them. What a debut"
Susan Hill, Daily Mail; Books of the Year

"That rare thing – a debut so fresh and unpredictable that you finished the last page impatient to read more by the author"
Jason Cowley, The Times

"Quite delicious. A beady and beguiling collection from a fresh young voice"
Deborah Moggach

"Rueful and witty"
Cressida Connolly, The Observer; Books of the Year

"These are clever, elegant pieces, complex, compact and memorable"
The Independent

"Piercing insights...the writing engages with its easy charm yet unsettles with its originality and honesty"
The Sunday Times

"Polly Samson is no minor talent...prose that makes you miss your bus stop"
The Guardian