Ambitious and playful, darkly humorous and imaginative, these strikingly original stories move effortlessly between the realistic and the fantastical, as their outsider characters explore what it’s like to be human in the twenty-first century. Whether about our relationship with the environment and animals, technology, social media, loneliness, or the enormity of time, they reflect the complexities of being alive. Beautifully written and compelling, you won’t read anything else like them. A weatherman reporting on looming environmental disaster finds the courage to come out. A writing retreat deteriorates into a confused reality when a sinister writing tutor goes to war with a hare. A cyborg visits a reconstructed campsite and experiences strong emotions from his distant human past. Hopper’s Nighthawks is brought to life when a freak lightning ball in a diner propels a group of outsiders to decide between loneliness and love. A man’s rage builds when an AI, brought into his house to cure him of his pathological projection, prefers talking to his kitten. Doctors battle a psychological disease brought on by taking selfies, using a radical therapy that shatters identity in order to reshape it. A visit by a mysterious coelacanth floods London with multicoloured dreams, suggesting new possibilities.