Leading the Dance

Secrets and their consequences run deep through Sarah Salway’s short stories in this haunting and sharply written collection, now republished with the addition of new stories. A bored housewife welcomes the nomadic painter of family pets into her home and commissions a portrait of her fridge; a schoolboy learns how to survive when his gang turns against him; a man’s life is irrevocably changed when he hears his wife make a new noise in bed; and in the title story, a dance between husband and wife at a school ceilidh becomes a battle for survival. This is domestic life turned on its head, with Salway’s witty and economic prose capturing the private moments of transformation of a set of characters on the edge.