Bull - Mark Sinnett

In Mark Sinnett's first collection of stories, daily life is overwhelmed -- pushed to the brink by the complexity and breakneck pace of all the data flooding in. And it is not just the local TV weatherman that is almost driven mad by the chaos. In the same city, women scour the classifieds to torment men who raise pitbulls and alligators; telephone technology turns estranged lovers into decrepit 007s and suburban Emma Peels; horrific accidents leave scars only tranquillised strippers can see; cameras fly like heavy, clattering, suicidal birds through plate glass windows; flowers are stolen from fresh graves by pathologists' wives; and cafs and bars become the setting for Judgement Day. These 20 stories are full of men and women who hurt each other -- intentionally and accidentally. But these people also manage to listen, to drink together, and, occasionally, to understand both each other, and the worlds they share.