Whoever You Choose to Love: Stories (Hardcover)

'Paul is a writer not just of immense promise...but of the kinds of judgement and skill that make her book a relief to read. Her titles are reminiscent of Carver, and if she's like him in her focus on the broken things of life then she's also like fellow Scottish writer Jackie Kay in her ability to make something fragmentary gleam at its sharp edges...This is fiction that shouldn't be missed.'

'From bedsitland to the more quotidian tableaux of the suburban family home, young Glaswegian Colette Paul writes uncommonly affecting stories about Scottish women who both feel and seem just one step out of line. Coming to focus more than once on the gaps - generation, aptitude, aspirations - that befall mohers and their daughters, Paul writes with confidence, especially about the concessions made to 'reality' in terms of relationships and surroundings.' (i-D MAGAZINE (May '04) )

'For someone so young, Paul's prose is stunningly perceptive. Her debut, WHOEVER YOU CHOOSE TO LOVE, is a collection of slick, quirky shorts which, despite the primarily domestic themes, have vast scope and cutting wit. Paul adds a modern, powerful spark to an oft-dismissed genre.' (Henry Sutton ESQUIRE )

'I couldn't put WHOEVER YOU CHOOSE TO LOVE down. It is brilliant. Funny, desperately sad, heartbreakingly recognisable, incredibly emotionally astute chronicles of human haplessness...Devastatingly truthful and written in delicate, tough, lovely lucid prose. Colette Paul really knows how to make a beautifully built short story.' (Liz Lochhead )

'[an] amazing debut collection of short stories...[Colette Paul] writes short stories that are both more polished and far better observed than anyone has a right to do..if WHATEVER YOU CHOOSE TO LOVE is a guide, whatever she chooses to write about next will at least be quirkily individualistic, unpredictable and oddly true to life...This is a writer who knows her own mind, and - as her first book makes absolutely plain - it's a mind that's well worth knowing.' (David Robinson THE SCOTSMAN (8.5.04) )

'The beauty of short story anthologies is that they can be dipped in and out of, but Colette Paul has defied this by writing a collection so compelling it's a wrench to put them down...This author has a rare talent that allows the power in the story to be not what is written in black and white, but that which has been left unsaid...This is an outstanding debut.' (Shari Low DAILY RECORD (15.5.04) )

'[Paul's] skill is to make the mundane interesting, and her characters likeable...She already has theart of pinning people to paper.' (Fiona Hook TIMES (22.5.04) )

'[an[ exquisitely carved short story collection.' (Brian Donaldson THE LIST (13.5.04) )

'The stories are united by a wistfulness; a sense of disappointment acknowledged but not explored. And they're wonderful. Paul may be young, but she understands a lot...Her point may be that life owes us nothing, but she leavens the melancholy with wit and acute sympathy for human complexity.' (Lottie Moggach TIME OUT (2-9 June 2004) )

'a collection of quirky, optimistic and at times melancholy stories which bristle with anger and wit and, most of all, with a kind of wide-eyed energy. Set in Glasgow mostly, they are contemporary tales, urban but never mundane.' (GREENOCK TELEGRAPH (4.6.04) )

'an assured debut of fictions from an astoundingly young writer.' (CITY LIFE (MANCHESTER, 26.5.04) )

'High and low culture are pleasingly intermingled in this collection, an inclusiveness that brings a welcome element of surprise and subversion to the stories...An impressive collection.' (Gerard Woodward TLS (11.6.04) )

'This collection of short stories from a new Scottish writer feature young, quirky, optimistic voices bristling with energy and humour...Everyday happenings with a twist which mark this newcomer as a great talent to be watched.' (BELFAST TELEGRAPH (26.6.04) )

'Some of these stories are melancholic, others sad, funny or witty, but all of them are extraordinary stories about ordinary characters, all are well written and beautifully built, with an alternation of descriptive parts, dialogues and free direct and indirect speech. Whoever You Choose to Love is a work about the mutability of the human heart and marks the arrival of a major new voice in Scottish literature.' (ERASING CLOUDS (website) )

'Paul is a writer not just of immense promise...but of the kinds of judgement and skill that make her book a relief to read. Her titles are reminiscent of Carver, and if she's like him in her focus on the broken things of life then she's also like fellow Scottish writer Jackie Kay in her ability to make something fragmentary gleam at its sharp edges...This is fiction that shouldn't be missed.' (Ali Smith GUARDIAN (18.12.04) )