Hings: Short Stories N’ That

Our summary description

As Independent Scottish booksellers, we write all of our descriptions personally, we hope you enjoy this one.

From the streets of working class Scotland, and sometimes a little beyond our solar system, this debut gathers stories that bend the everyday into something stranger. Chris McQueer writes with a surreal edge, twisting familiar situations until they tilt, and filling them with characters who feel instantly recognisable, whether you want to keep them close or cross the road to avoid them.

Peter has earned his night off and will not cover Shelley’s shift, but he needs the right pals for a believable story. Deek is set on making his mark in outsider art, with Banksy sized ambition. Davie is devoted to tattoos, certain the next one will be a masterpiece. Tam sees himself as one of the galaxy’s great minds, but parallel universes come with their own mess. Elsewhere, everyone wakes to find their knees on backwards.

The humour comes from how close these lives sit to the real, even when the world turns inside out.