Multitudes

Features eleven stories that explore the many facets of growing up - the pain and the heartache, the tenderness and the joy, the fleeting and the formative - or 'the drunkenness of things being various'. 'A lively, humane book, gritty but wholehearted.' Colin Barrett, Irish Times'One of the finest short-story writers at work today.' Wendy Erskine'Exhilarating.' Sunday Times'Brilliant.' Sunday Business PostFrom Belfast to London and back again, the eleven stories in Lucy Caldwell's acclaimed first collection chronicle the heartache, joy, and tenderness of growing up.With lives caught in the suspense of transition - between city and country; between the in crowd and the out; between home and escape; between love and loneliness - Multitudes culminates with the heart-wrenching and unforgettable title story, as a young woman goes through her first labour and the traumatic days that follow.Deeply affecting, intimate and yet resonant, these are stories that squeeze right into the fractures that end up shaping the course of lives.