The Biting Point

Catherine Smith is an award-winning poet whose books The Butcher’s Hands and Lip were both shortlisted for the prestigious Forward Prize. The stories in The Biting Point, her long-awaited first prose collection, are unpredictable, edgy and often surprisingly funny, charting the dark territory underlying seemingly ordinary lives. They explore the lies we tell each other, and ourselves, with unsettling results.
A woman falls apart as she prepares for her secret lover’s funeral… A child builds a magical sandcastle as her parents’ marriage crumbles… A young woman confesses to her part in a catastrophically cruel childhood stunt… A love-struck teenager’s driving lesson reveals a devastating gap between fantasy and reality…  Catherine Smith’s writing is always pin-sharp, unsentimental and insightful. Her stories delight in human possibility and complexity.