Written with the same unflinching compassion that marked Bryony Doran's impressive debut novel 'The China Bird'.

(David Swann)

Gives us rare glimpses of stifling family life seen from the eyes of a young Englishwoman who is hovering watchfully on the edge.

(Berlie Doherty)

Travellers and strangers dominate Bryony Doran's collection of short stories. Strangers removed from those around them by language and relationships - from the woman visiting her husband's foreign family to the sister pushed out by a carer. Do we alienate ourselves? Or do we misinterpret the signs around us?'

(Yvonne Barlow)

Alienation takes many forms... explicit here in a single red shoe, symbolic by the shape of an egg in the sand, the social exclusion of sudden illness or accident, the headscarf of a cultural divide, the loss of identity and a wish and grasp for change that finds any life better than a void... and the self-imposed exile of fear.

(Bill Allerton)

I found this to be a very accessible and beautifully written collection of short stories. Each piece is finely drawn and moves fluently through the experiences and feelings of the characters. The voices vary in age, though many are of a young woman's struggle with unknown ways, places and people. The stories are set in Britain and Turkey. A range of relationships is explored: newly-forming, established, temporary and unexpected. Themes include those of dislocation, intimacy, distance, leaving and loss.

I engaged very quickly with the new voices of each story and the strong visual/sensory nature of its context. At the end a feeling remained that there are several layers and directions of experience to absorb. This together with the lyrical language left me with the urge to read them all again.

(Jane Monach)

Bryony Doran's stories are haunting and evocative. Many -- for example, The Red Shoes, The Sand Eggs, Scuttering the Pebbles -- have a poetic voice, not surprisingly, since Doran is also a poet. The language is condensed; connections come after several readings. In The Hair of the Prophet and Babbanne, the relationship with the grandmother is portrayed with such compassion. My favorites were the ones set in Turkey; I could relate well to the experience of having to adjust to a "foreign" culture.

(Natalie Ventura)