Katherine Heiny Knihy

Katherine Heiny's work does something magical: elevates the mundane so that it has the stakes of a mystery novel, gives women's interior lives the gravity they so richly deserve and makes you laugh along the way Lena Dunham In the title story, we meet Maya, who is torn between her wryly funny boyfriend and the allure of her veterinarian. In "Andorra," a woman's lover calls her every Thursday as he drives to meet his wife at marriage counselling. "How to Give the Wrong Impression" shows us a woman pining for her roommate, a man who will hold her hand but then tell her that her palm is sweaty. In "The Dive Bar" a girl agrees to have a drink with her married lover's wife. Revisiting Maya in several stories, chronicling her various states of love, this is a collection about how we are unfaithful to each other, both wilfully and unwittingly. Populated with unwelcome house guests, disastrous birthday parties, needy but loyal friends, and flirtatious older men, the stories are emotionally astute, sexy, and disarming-and they introduce us to a tart, and marvellous, new voice."

The beloved author of Early Morning Riser brings us eleven glittering stories of love - friendships formed at the airport bar, ex-husbands with benefits, mothers of suspiciously sweet teenagers, ill-advised trysts - in all its forms, both ridiculous and sublime. The games and rituals performed by Katherine Heiny's characters range from mischievous to tender. In 'Bridesmaid, Revisited,' Marilee, suffering from a laundry and life crisis, wears a massive bridesmaid's dress to work. In 'Twist and Shout,' Ericka's elderly father mistakes his four-thousand-dollar hearing aid for a cashew and eats it. In 'Turn Back, Turn Back,' a bedtime story coupled with a receipt for a Starbucks babyccino reveal a struggling actor's deception. And in '561,' Charlene pays the true price of infidelity and is forced to help her husband's ex-wife move out of the family home. From one of our most celebrated writers, our bard of waking up in the wrong bed, wearing the wrong shoes, late for the wrong job, but loved by the right people, Katherine Heiny has delivered a work of glorious humour and immense kindness.

'I have rarely seen modern marriage reproduced so faithfully in print. It's about love once the early romance has subsided. Hilarious' Jojo Moyes, Woman and Home 'Standard Deviation is a marvel' Kate Atkinson 'Addictive reading' Mail on Sunday 'A comic masterpiece' Observer

'Gorgeous. Very, very funny in a knowing wry way but so tender, so beautiful. I loved all the characters.' Marian Keyes 'Warm, witty, touching - and frequently hilarious' David Nicholls, author of Sweet Sorrow 'You put the book down and feel glad to be alive' India Knight, Sunday Times