Dying Light

A fearless, unsettling story collection that captures its characters on the verge of vital decisions and follows their twists and turns into regret, loneliness, oblivion, and solace. Uncompromising, often dark, and always insightful, Dying Light explores the mysteries of duty, forgiveness, power, and love through a broad range of narrative voices. We meet a football coach who seeks to avenge his wife's affair, a delusional poet who escapes from a hospital as the bombing of Baghdad begins, a woman whose son was killed in a car accident, and an almost-widower wistful about his first love. In these and other stories, Hays illuminates his characters' most secret and human realisations with unwavering candour and clarity.