A haunting collection of densely imagined insights into the cruel underside of urban life, from the Raymond Carver of the English Midlands

This collection of stories features slow burning and tender portraits of people caught in relationships going wrong, or raw and urgent messages from those trying to make a mark on the very society that discards them. In "The Lookout," a boy watches the sinister goings on of an urban estate. In "Backing Up," a computer specialist in a hospital witnesses a disturbing incident on the roof. The crime career for "Hot Little Danny" - a reckless teen with a teacher girlfriend - is inexorably upward. "Mustard" tracks the searing life reflections of a middle-aged man stabbed and left for dead in a hallway. Infidelity, old friendships, and passions haunt the drifting lives of Beard's characters in these brilliantly honed descriptions of human loss and love.