To celebrate the making of the film Far North, directed by Asif Kapadia, starring Michelle Yeoh and Sea Bean, which was based on one of Sara Maitland’s short stories, Maia Press has published this collection of “modern traditional tales”. These stories, formally bold and innovative, emotionally edgy and deeply imbued with a sense of location, address Sara Maitland’s primary concerns about the links between beauty and terror, modernity and ritual. Intertwining the everyday and the inexplicable to witty and disquieting effect the wildest flights of fantasy are anchored in deep psychological understanding overlaid with a wickedly ironic humour.

“The most exciting short story writer I know.”  Martin Goodman