Bear and His Daughter

‘These seven stories are remarkable for their unity. Stone’s lead characters are all junkies, obsessive and addicts; rage, alcohol and crystal meth galvanize these stories with a hard, bitter energy . . . At best, they have the driving rage of Stone’s characters’ The Times ‘Witty, compassionate, impeccably constructed and, for the most part, an astringent pleasure to read . . . these absorbing, meticulously crafted stories, with their grizzled humanity and uncomfortable humour, deserve to be read’ Times Literary Supplement ‘Again and again, casual elegance and perceptiveness combine to produce slight but powerful images . . . There is not a surplus sentence or clumsy metaphor anywhere’ Scotsman ‘Stone is notably sharp when describing vivid states of mind, be it the raised perception that comes during conflict, or the stoned paranoia of a poet’ Esquire ‘Relentlessly probes lives sacrificed on the altar of extreme living and unchecked inebriation . . . relentlessly sad, but often beautiful’ Sunday Times