From the Number One bestselling author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life, a gemlike collection of unforgettable short stories in which nothing is quite what it seems…

In this first full collection since Not the End of the World, we meet a queen who makes a bargain she cannot keep; a secretary who watches over the life she has just left; and a man whose luck changes when a horse speaks to him. Witty and wise, with subtle connections between the stories, Normal Rules Don’t Apply is a startling , and funny feast for the imagination.

In Kate Atkinson’s world nothing is over until ‘ the talking dog speaks.’

Praise for Kate Atkinson:

‘Simply one of the best writers working today, anywhere in the world’ GILLIAN FLYNN

‘A brilliant and profoundly original writer’ RACHEL CUSK

‘Atkinson is a novelist of unrivalled immediacy, authority, and skill’ FINANCIAL TIMES

‘Atkinson has a plotter’s mind: intricate, clever, satisfying’ THE SUNDAY TIMES

‘One of our finest novelists’ SUNDAY EXPRESS

‘Kate Atkinson is an international treasure: She creates characters with the ease of Agatha Christie, makes narratives out of mysteries and mystery out of narrative, and has written some of the most memorable scenes and dialogue I’ve encountered in the past decade’ VANITY FAIR

‘I can think of few writers who can make the ordinary collide with the extraordinary to such beguiling effect’ OBSERVER

‘One of the country’s most innovative, exciting and intelligent authors.’ SCOTSMAN