{"product_id":"dancing-on-the-outskirts-isbn-9780349007052","title":"Dancing On the Outskirts","description":"Here is a wonderful collection of short stories by the writer known for 'the Mackay vision, suburban - as kitsch, as unexceptional, and yet as rich in history and wonder as a plain Victorian terrace house, its threshold radiant with tiling and stained-glass birds of paradise encased in leaded lights' - \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShena Mackay, who first came to fame before the age of twenty with two novellas, is the doyenne of the short form. In this volume of previously uncollected stories - including those read on radio - she constantly surprises with a view of the ordinary world that is not at all ordinary.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA grasshopper determinedly takes up residence on a bathroom ceiling; a gecko hiding in a cupboard brings a strange sort of luck; a woman spies from a distance two older women friends after many long years and a memory of how they gallopedin the playground as Starlight Blaze and Pepperpot plays sweetly, suddenly in her mind; pigs are swaddled in blankets, looking like babies in shawls; luggage is packed with youthful hopes and ideals.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe observes how people rub along and reveals the best and worst of us all: a disgruntled schoolboy and his hapless teacher conquer mountains and their antipathy for each other; a girl with green eyes and iridescent hair discovers revenge; a race to be the best mushroom-picker creates only losers; and rotten apples, in the right pair of hands, make a loving pie. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShena Mackay is a generous and keen-eyed chronicler of the everyday; she deftly brings wisdom and humour to the worlds she creates, worlds that we suddenly, excitingly see anew. She is an utterly original writer.","brand":"Virago","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44891639972069,"sku":"NP9780349007052","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/O_0584ee47-a952-470a-a556-6283bf5f23a5.jpg?v=1773101568","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/dancing-on-the-outskirts-isbn-9780349007052","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}