Normal Rules Don't Apply

From the Number One bestselling author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life, a gemlike collection of unforgettable short stories in which nothing is quite what it seems...

Discover the fantastical Sunday Times bestselling short story collection from the award-winning author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life.

'Simply one of the best writers working today, anywhere in the world' – Gillian Flynn

'As soon as you get to the end, you'll be tempted to just start at the beginning' – Independent

'Funny and poignant in equal measure, you'll want to read this captivating collection in one mystical sitting.' – Daily Express

Welcome to a world, where nothing is quite what it seems...

In these pages, you'll meet, among others, a queen who makes a bargain she cannot keep, a secretary who watches over the life she has just left, and a man whose luck changes when a horse speaks to him.

With clockwork intricacy, inventiveness, and sharp social observation, Kate Atkinson conjures a feast for the imagination in a constantly changing multiverse.

Atkinson's first short story collection in twenty years, Normal Rules Don't Apply is a dazzling array of eleven interconnected tales.

'Hilarious, breathtaking, horrific, irresistible ... Atkinson is always in command ... Heart in mouth, I never wanted this book to end' – Sydney Morning Herald

'Sublime ... showcases her superb storytelling and the wit of her writing' – Good Housekeeping

'Life in all of its surreal, tragic and comic glory is perfectly captured within these pages' – Red

'Dazzling' – Reader's Digest

Praise for Kate Atkinson:

'Inexhaustibly ingenious' – Hilary Mantel

'A brilliant and profoundly original writer' – Rachel Cusk

'Atkinson is a novelist of unrivalled immediacy, authority, and skill' – Financial Times

'One of the country's most innovative, exciting, and intelligent authors.' – Scotsman