Normal Rules Don't Apply

Stories

By: Kate Atkinson

Narrated by: Paterson Joseph

A dazzling collection of eleven interconnected stories from the bestselling, award-winning author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life, with everything that readers love about her novels—the inventiveness, the verbal felicity, the sharp observations on human nature, and the deeply satisfying emotional wallop.

Nothing is quite as it seems in this collection of eleven dazzling stories. We meet a queen who makes a bargain she cannot keep; a secretary who watches over the life she has just left; a man who bets on a horse that may—or may not—have spoken to him. Everything that readers love about the novels of Kate Atkinson is here—the inventiveness, the verbal felicity, the sharp observations on human nature, and the deeply satisfying emotional wallop.

A startling and funny feast for the imagination, these stories conjure a multiverse of subtly connected worlds while illuminating the webs of chance and connection among us all.

Brilliant.

Possibly my favorite now of her books. I highly recommend listening to it as the reader is wonderful.

another masterful story from the most underrated story teller of our time!

Kate Atkinson is a genius at weaving narratives together. always unexpected and always a delight. these stories comes together in a way that had me smiling throughout. genius.

Playful jigsaw puzzle of stories

I listened to these stories one piece at a time during a life period without long stretches of time for audiobooks. At first they seemed fun but also definitely contained elements where “ normal rules don’t apply”. But Atkinson uses such wry humor to comment on quirks of life that even though parts seemed oddly nonsensical they were fun. However I should have known that Atkinson had a larger plan where by the final short story each one has fit together in a masterful fanciful jigsaw puzzle which also is outside of any of the normal rules of fiction. Love this collection and if it’s possible it made me an even greater fan of Atkinson in general!

Fun! Effervescent!!

Magic and myth and stories all woven together in a fascinating manner. I love Kate Atkinson‘s writing, and in this book it is enhanced by a wonderful narrator. 

Normal Tropes Do Apply

Atkinson's antic imagination is on full display, as is her considerable ability to intertwine the lives of vividly drawn characters. The book is amusing. Unlike most of her other books, amusement seems to be the point. The pokes at human folly concerning each other and the world itself are standard with no new discoveries or connections between ideas and perceptions to be made. These are tales, not stories. There isn't a fictional form with beginning, middle, and conclusion. There's "this happens and then that happens and, oh cool, this overlaps with that" and then it stops. Despite there being too many clueless and/or passive characters, it's a very fun ride. But at the end, I'm just thinking, "So?"