Buy it here.

Reviews:

'Alison MacLeod’s collection is a baker’s dozen of excellence book-ended by brilliance... At the core of the "tale"’ – and these are modern fables that unravel and decipher reality as much as create it – is a series of complex meditations on the idea of attraction.... MacLeod’s stories detail the wayward flickerings of desire with settings from, among others, the bleak twilight
world of IKEA, coastal Nova Scotia and the wistful seediness of Brighton... "Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction" is a potent and heady mix. Avoiding the perils of both overt erudition and sentimental whimsy, the whole is ably piloted by MacLeod’s total control of her material. Highly recommended. ' Time Out (London and Sydney)

'Alison MacLeod is a strikingly original voice. Her stories create
intimate worlds... and make the reader live in them with an
intensity which is haunting, disturbing and above all beguiling.' Helen Dunmore, novelist, poet

'MacLeod's fictions are modern indeed. They are fragmentary evocations of desire and its mysteries, passing glimpses into minds and hearts: tender; pierced; translucent.... [Her] characters are strong, and they are worth listening to...' The Guardian

'Beautifully crafted, they range from brilliantly observed humour - customers stampeding in Ikea at the store's launch in Notes for a Chaotic Century - to the haunting and heart-rending - the tender elegy to a middle-aged love affair in Dirty Weekend. Immensely readable.' The Big Issue

'Her observations are brilliant... she continually makes the ordinary shocking and the shocking marvelous and inevitable...These stories make compelling, humbling reading.' Sue Roe, critic

'MacLeod's range – spanning the movingly real to the mysteriously surreal – is excitingly, imaginatively realised and unified by an awareness of the dark menace of love's uncertainty.' Metro (London)

2008

Nov. 28: Alison MacLeod joins this evening's panel on BBC Radio 3's 'The Verb'; Alison and A.S. Byatt discuss the new collection The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease and the inspiration writers have found in Freud's notion of 'the uncanny'. Live recording: 9.15 p.m.

Nov. 20: Alison MacLeod to read at 'Short Fuse' literary cabaret in The Komedia's studio bar, Gardner Street, Brighton. For more info, phone The Komedia box office in Brighton.

Oct. 31: A modern ghost story - written and read by Alison MacLeod at Winchester's Theatre Royal. Box office: 01962 840440.

Sept. 20: Alison MacLeod and Simon Robson read from their recent collections at the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Festival. 7p.m. at the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, Ireland. (Read about the Festival care of the famous Salt Publishing - click on this link for the blog.)

July 5: 'From Mystery to Revelation: Exploring Short Story Form' - a short story workshop with Alison MacLeod. The IpArt Festival, Ipswich.

May 24: The Charleston Literary Festival - Alison MacLeod chairs 'Literary Inspirations': Helen Dunmore and Lloyd Jones in conversation. 2.30 p.m. at the Charleston Farmhouse, East Sussex.

May 21: The Charleston Literary Festival - Alison MacLeod chairs 'Past TImes': Linda Grant and Emily Perkins in conversation. 8 p.m. at the Charleston Farmhouse, East Sussex.

May 5: Back by popular demand... The Brighton Moment. Many of the city's finest writers turn a spotlight on life in Brighton in this one-night-only literary cabaret. Produced by Alison MacLeod and Susanna Jones. Venue: The Komedia Upstairs, 7.30 pm. (Sorry - sold out! But you can buy The Ilustrated Brighton Moment here.)

April 5: Foyles' Bookshop, London, all-day (and evening) short story extravaganza. Join story readers, publishers, writers and edtors. In the first slot of the day, Alison MacLeod and Adam Marek read from their recent collections (10 am). Listen to both authors read from their work.

January 17: reading from new collection for the 'Short Fuse' story event, The Komedia Studio Bar, Brighton