Salley Vickers

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The Boy Who Could See Death

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Effortlessly conjures surprises, brilliantly realized, pricelessly entertaining

Tremendous, unsettling, brilliantly creepy

A compelling and often startling collection of stories. Vickers is a storyteller of note and grace

A charming spinster with kleptomaniac tendencies, a wealthy engineer in love with his wife's cleaning lady, a middle-aged woman with an imaginary boyfriend and a homeless man who can foretell death. Scratch the surface of ordinary lives and nothing is quite as it seems. 
 
Salley Vickers' short stories offer fleeting glimpses into strangers' lives. These are normal people teetering on a crisis point, about to be ambushed by an unsought epiphany - or an unwanted home truth. Perfectly crafted, understated yet unforgettable, these tales are, above all, a celebration of the variety, complexity and peculiarity of life.

From Salley Vickers, bestselling author of Miss Garnet's Angel, comes The Boy Who Could See Death, an enchanting and unsettling collection of short stories. 
 
Eli is an ordinary boy with an extraordinary gift. It will shape the course of his whole life but, he learns the hard way, he must keep it hidden from those who know him best. Seeing death is a mixed blessing. 
 
Eli is not the only one defying the world's expectations of him. Cousin Francesca, a charming spinster and a favourite with the children, is harbouring kleptomaniac tendencies. Sarah Palliser, living alone next to a ramshackle graveyard, is more scared of the small box under her stairs than the ghosts outside her window. Meanwhile dreamy artist Nan is nursing a growing obsession with wolves in Britain and the recently widowed Frances finds herself inventing an exotic imaginary boyfriend to pass the time. 
 
Push through an unassuming front door on an unremarkable street or peer into the glowing fluorescent windows of an urban office block and within you'll find strange and unforgettable scenes, normal people caught in situations they do not quite comprehend... 
 
Salley Vickers is a master of the uncanny and the unexpected. In this collection of eleven remarkable stories, she explores bereavement and betrayal, closely guarded secrets and common gossip, long-overdue endings and decidedly strange beginnings. Each story is perfectly formed: a snapshot of a total stranger, a fleeting glimpse of lives spiced with a little something extra.

Salley Vickers is the author of many acclaimed novels including the best-selling Miss Garnet's Angel, Mr Golightly's Holiday, The Other Side of You and The Cleaner of Chartres (Viking 2012) and two short story collections, the latest The Boy Who Could See Death (Viking 2015). She has worked as a cleaner, a dancer, a teacher of children with special needs, a university lecturer and a psychoanalyst. She now writes and lectures full time. Find out more at www.salleyvickers.com or @SalleyVickers.

The Boy Who Could See Death

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