Customer Reviews

Word Jig: New Fiction from Scotland

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How do you like your Scotch ?
Island or Highland? In Word Jig there's the smoke and peat of the Glens, the pungency of urban Lowlands and badlands, the sea-tang of Orkney: Scottish writing has the power to lull dreams into life, and rub salt in wounds.

Word Jig is a dance across the rugged landscape of modern Scotland. From the keen eye of internationally acclaimed Michel Faber to the dizzying imagination of equally celebrated Ali Smith. You'll find newer talents too: Suhayl Saadi's and Linda Henderson's simultaneously fresh and deeply ancient voices. There's delicacy and deftness in Thornton and Stewart; magic and realness throughout. Hear living Gaelic, the music of Scots-Italian, west coast accents brandished like flick-knives. As soon as one story has captivated and convinced you, another comes along, introducing a whole new Scotland.

Scottish writing is one of the most daring, inventive and searingly honest of contemporary world fiction - without abandoning the great narrative tradition of Stevenson and Scott. Whether these pieces are lamenting the fading of dreams, glorying in the hazards of reckless street-life, or finding grains of truth in myths, they share an honesty, humanity and a love of storytelling.

From hillwalking to trainspotting, Word Jig gathers the best of recent Scottish writing. With its Buddhas and Dali and Eminem, it could just as easily have been called World Jig: this collection reaches far beyond old Scotia's shores.

Each piece has the singularity of a long-matured single malt; together they make the most delicate and potent Scottish blend. Sit back and enjoy - there's plenty more where this came from.

No tartans. No kilts. No bagpipes. No shortbread. No moors or mountains. One ghost.

"many of the writers included here were not even born in Scotland" admits Editor Marie Carter."