Ten Stories About Smoking (Boxed Edition) [Paperback]

'Stuart Evers' deft debut collection is transatlantic in its influences and obsessions. Raymond Carver and Alice Munro echo throughout these short, sad stories about cigarettes... This exquisite slice of Anglo-Americana deserves to be read.' --New Statesman

'A Swindon motel, a pub in Benidorm and a Las Vegas casino are among the settings for these wistful tales of white-collar heartache... A final tale weaves US author Raymond Carver's death from lung cancer into the story of an Englishman whose racist father is dying. The stunt lets you know what sort of company this first time writer aims to keep: it's a sign of his promise that he gets away with it.' --Metro

'The stories don't disappoint, far from it - inhaling each story is a hauntingly wonderful experience; each muses with pensive melancholy on life - on love, betrayal, destruction and seduction - and circumnavigates the central tenet that there's a certain empty (and destructive?) hollowness lurking at the centre of human emotion and existence, however intense or robust they may seem. Much like a cigarette itself. Moving and thought provoking, there's a beautiful delicacy to the way these tales of disaffection burn down to the filter, searing to the core of fragile human sensitivity like a butt stubbed out on the flesh.' --easyliving.com

'The solid construction and Evers's confidence are impressive. His next move will be worth watching.' --Financial Times

'When a book is so beautifully designed - this collection of short stories comes as a flip-top packet of cigarettes - I have an unfair suspicion that the publishers are seeking to divert my attention from meagre content to exceptional presentation. Not so here: Stuart Evers' debut is strong in itself and bodes well for future publications... Brilliantly restrained and emotionally mature, I wish this had been a packet of 20, not ten.' --Scotland on Sunday

'Heartbreak, loss and longing are the themes of Evers' debut collection of short stories, which deal with the sadness and emptiness of modern life. Powerfully understated.' --Marie Claire

'Ten Stories About Smoking is a remarkably assured collection. Evers has developed a subtle, minimalist style loaded with implication - a versatile instrument capable of expressing humour and pathos in equal measure ... It is strange, at a time when we are told the average attention span is decreasing, a result of our exposure to social networking sites and other digital media, that short stories are not more popular than ever. Ten Stories About Smoking looks likely to precipitate renewed interest in the form: these stylish, quintessentially urban tales remind us what was so good about it in the first place' --GQ.com

'This week we're...almost lighting up at the prospect of Stuart Evers's debut collection of fiction, which comes in a flip-top cigarette packet-style box (top marks for Mr Picador Designer.) We also recommend his find literary blog at stuartevers.blogspot.com' --The Herald

'The fuss that Picador is making about Evers's book (which extends to packaging it beautifully in a mock cigarette-box) is unusual enough for a debut work - but almost unheard of when the debut is a short story collection. Once you read it, though, the excitement is easy to understand. Evers happily acknowledges the influence of such American masters of short fiction as Raymond Carver, John Cheever and Richard Yates. Yet, by applying the same unshowy precision to alarmingly recognisable British lives, he achieves something both original and quietly devastating.' --Daily Telegraph

'A stripped-down and perceptive collection that's already gained praise from American writers like Wells Tower and David Vann, it's an impressive and controlled debut. Evers' understated prose and keen eye for detail tap into universal themes of loneliness and desperation, albeit with a deadpan streak of humour running throughout, making this a genuinely impressive debut.' --Big Issue

'Several of the stories are outstanding, some are profound, none harangue, and collectively they will impress . . . touching, true and shocking in their humanity. Living is difficult. Most of us are frightened. Here is a book that comes in a cigarette pack that not only makes more sense of life, it delights the mind' --Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

'If I were a nicotine junkie, the cigarette-box packaging would be enough to cause anticipatory Pavlovian drooling. The stories brim with yearning. Evers avoids cliché, illuminating tales with sparks of surprise. His writing is sequined with sparkling descriptions' --Independent on Sunday

'A sort of sparse utility makes Evers' prose so compelling. He can be funny, but his world view is bleak. It's a rich sort of bleakness, though, saturated with nostalgia.' --The Times

'I enjoyed the ten tales, with their musing, film noir atmosphere; Evers is a deft, spare writer.' --Daily Mail

'Ten Stories about Smoking is an original debut, several of the stories are outstanding, some are profound ... Book covers are designed to catch the eye, the witty, innovative packaging of Ten Stories About Smoking has done exactly that. The stories are equally impressive, touching, true and shocking in their humanity . . . Living is difficult. Most of us are frightened. Smokers may appear more daring because they risk their lives. But here is a book that comes in a cigarette pack that not only makes more sense of life, it will delight the mind, and certainly winds the argument that reading about cigarettes is far safer than actually smoking.' --Eileen Batterby, The Irish Times

'Raymond Carver's influence is strong throughout, culminating in the final story in which Carver himself appears, dying of lung cancer and reflecting upon what would be his own final story, "Errand" (itself a homage to a man in his last hours, Chekhov). It's a dark joke of Evers's to put it at the end here. Download it on your Kindle if you must, but the book's design is worth a comment. The paperback comes in its own sturdy flip-top carton designed to resemble a giant cigarette packet. This could have made for a gimmicky disaster, but the result is oddly pleasing: it's impossible to resist the urge to tuck the book back into its box between stories. Packaged like a guilty, disposable indulgence, the collection reminds us that the short story is perfect for bringing some colour and imagination into a day, and that we are never, ever too busy to read - nip out for a five-minute break; snatch a sneaky story with a glass of wine. The tales in this collection are observant and understated, and all in the time it takes to have a fag.' --Guardian

'In this impressive debut, Stuart Evers presents us with a range of narrators whose voices are immediately captivating. His prose effortlessly draws you into each character's emotional microcosm, whether it's the blunt, stilted reflections of a bereaved man searching for a long-lost brother or a sleepless woman smoking her way through a burden of inherited guilt . . . Evers has written a collection of stories which are surprisingly intense and affecting; they may be short-lived but, like the best writing, they linger in the mind.' --Telegraph.co.uk

`The stories in Evers's staggeringly impressive debut capture characters just at the point, in their early 30s, when their youth is undeniably over. Which is where the smoking comes in. Throughout the book, cigarettes represent a more carefree time...Fortunately, though, Evers never labours the points. Instead, the sharpness - and quiet sympathy - of his writing lets the poignancy speak for itself. The result could well make the most hardened of ex-smokers miss the day of cheerful puffing away.' --Daily Mail

Ten stories of allure, betrayal, nostalgia, solitude, seduction, damage, desire and loss; of silence broken by the click of a lighter; insomnia defined by a glowing ember; a magician’s trick; a lover’s scent; a final wish. These are stories that go to the heart of things. ‘In this remarkable collection, Stuart Evers winds a course through worlds of yearning, secrets and mortification in prose as lithe as a ribbon of smoke’ Wells Tower ‘Love, loss and recovery are the real themes of these quiet, haunting stories, which add up into an unexpectedly powerful book. An impressive debut’ Aravind Adiga ‘Evers has found possibility in even the bleakest and smallest of lives, with each delicately linked not only by a cigarette but also by a glimpse into how terrifyingly empty a life can be’ David Vann ‘With powerfully understated writing, Evers has an eye for the humor that lives alongside sadness, and above all for the humanity in the smallest of actions’ Evie Wyld