Roads Ahead

by Catherine O'Flynn (Editor), Iain Grant

In 1999 a spiky anthology of young writing was the first title to appear from the Tindal Street imprint and the first on a prize-winning road ahead. Ten years on, Tindal Street Press celebrates a decade of publishing - and of commitment to the short story and the wealth of regional writing talent - with a showcase that's just as ground-breaking. Prize-winning author Catherine O'Flynn here presents a range of exciting new voices from the next generation of English short story writers.

Genres: Short Stories

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

About the author

Catherine O'Flynn, born in 1970, is a British writer.

Her debut novel, What Was Lost, won the Costa First Novel Award, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, The Commonwealth Writers' Prize and The Southbank Show Literature Award. It was longlisted for the Booker and Orange Prizes. She was named Waterstone’s Newcomer of the Year at the 2008 Galaxy British Book Awards.


Her second novel The News Where You Are, published in 2010, was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize, an Edgar Allen Poe Award and was a Channel 4 TV Book Club selection.

Her third novel Mr Lynch's Holiday is published in 2013.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am biased, badly, as Luke (brown) and Kavita (Bhanot) from my writer's group are in this anthology, but both their stories are terrific, Kavita's a sharp scool bully tale, which has a lovely gear change in the middle, so smoothly done, and luke's about a cocaine addled youth in Buenos Aires who hasn't brought enough books, not being able to get on with Borges which he'd saved for the trip: I couldn't finish the first story's title. Looking around the hostel for others: For all their smugness about expanding their horizons throught travel, the books (travellers) left were by Andy Mcnabb or someone called Freya North .

This book celebrates ten years of Tindal Street Press and is a follow up to 'Hard Shoulder' which launched the press in 1999. That book featured young writers (under 35) from Birmingham and area, this one is similar, except it takes in other regions of the UK. Although young the themes range widely and include a fantasy involving keeping a mermaid in a jacuzzi in the attic. They are all good, and some are breathtaking, with fresh takes on old themes. Chris Smith's Since Charlie Hadn't Come is superb, and so is Chris Killen's Ball Pool another one exploring madness/dementia. The 'heroine' of the latter describes her ex boyfriend as looking longer than she remembers, and bent over like.. someone looking for a contact lens. She doesn't remember him being this awkward. It's as if he's been dismantled.

Richard Millward (already an accomplished novelist with 'Apples' and Ten Storey Love Song') has a story about a girl driving back after a blind date, her drinks have been spiked and the dreamy l;andscape goes by with all the firs jumping to attention as I zoomed past .

Michelle Singh's 'Shooters' is a horrific slice of life pressed home with urgency and compassion. Anietie Isong's Devotion is another bitter and stinging African story (read a lot of those this year - Akpan and Ngozi). arah Butler's 'Staying Together' has this memorable image: He writes on the.. mirror, revealing letter shaped glimpses of himself

All in all pretty terrific.

[Drew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read a review of Roads Ahead in the print version of the Guardian when I was in London in 2009. It was a little side review that said it was a great collection of new short stories by young authors. I usually enjoy this format so I was excited to check it out. I couldn't find it in the remaining time we spent in UK, but ordered it once I got back to the States. Interestingly enough, it was shipped from the UK since it wasn't available in the US at the time. It sat on my shelf for about a year while I worked through my reading queue. I cracked the spine this week.

Sadly, I wasn't very impressed. There are 22 pieces and an introduction by the editor. Of those 23 selections, I thought five were good, six ok, ten awful and two were "eh". Of the good ones, the best was the introduction by the editor, Catherine O'Flynn. She did in a few sentences what the other authors couldn't do in 10-25 pages. I loved her recounting how she worked in a penny candy store as a child and how she would select sweets for people. "At first, I couldn't understand why customers didn't select the sweets themselves, but I gradually learned that the thrill of the mix-up was exactly in the handing over of the confectionery reins to someone else – the excitement of letting another choose." That was a great line, which after looking up the Guardian piece again, was cited by the reviewer as well. Interesting...

However, I would like to highlight some of the stories that I enjoyed. I could totally relate to the interchange between the two women fighting over the discarded item in "The Chest," by Kathyrn Simmonds. It reminded me of some of my own short stories. The story by Dea Brovig, "Ania's Wake," was excellent in setting a mood, exactly what I think is imperative in the short story format. It reminded me of some of my favorite pieces by Japanese noir writer Kenzo Kitikata, e.g. Ashes and Winter Sleep. I also enjoyed the stories by Iain Grant (Six of the Best) and Nick Walker (Old School Entertainment).