That Was a Shiver, and Other Stories

(Paperback, Main)

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SHORTLISTED FOR SALTIRE FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR, 2017

A local tries to sell his sister to a trucker as he passes through town; a couple put their children to bed and hear a loud scratching at the wall; a man looks into a mirror and reflects on becoming more like his father.

Sparky, touching and brilliantly daring, these stories uncover human feeling in the ordinary and the everyday, and are a reminder of Kelman's exceptional talent.

Reviews

Kelman is on another level to most of the living writers in the UK * * Guardian * *
Kelman has always been a true and honest writer; which is why he is one of the fairly few who really matter -- ALLAN MASSIE * * Scotsman * *
Brilliant . . . this collection shows a writer who is still at the top of his game, brimming with creativity, vitality and artistic integrity * * Irish Independent * *
Like the best short story writers - James Joyce, Kafka, John Cheever, Alice Munro - he has reinvented the form * * The Herald * *
Kelman brings alive a human consciousness like no other writer can -- ALAN WARNER

PRAISE FOR THE STORIES OF JAMES KELMAN:
Tender and funny in a way that may surprise those who know him only by reputation

* * Daily Telegraph * *
A rollicking, riveting read . . . Kelman's language of inner thought is so fluid and immediate it reads more like breath than words * * Daily Herald * *
The mixture of the precisely but surreally bureaucratic and the casually macabre is perfectly judged * * Sunday Times * *
You only have to read one phrase to recognise his utterly distinctive voice: lyrical, philosophical as a pub stool resident and steeped in the street . . . The result, for those who take words seriously, is canonical and pure joy * * Metro * *
Kelman's language is immediately exciting; like a musician, he uses repetition and rhythm * * New Yorker * *

Author Bio

James Kelman was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1989 with A Disaffection, which also won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. He went on to win the Booker Prize five years later with How Late It Was, How Late, before being shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2009 and 2011. Both Dirt Road and That Was a Shiver were shortlisted for the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year in 2016 and 2017.