Fates of the Animals

Padrika Tarrant was born in 1974. She read sculpture at Norwich School of Art, where she developed an unhealthy fixation with scissors and the animator Jan Svankmajer. Fates of the Animals is her third book, following Broken Things (Salt 2007) and The Knife Drawer (Salt 2011). She lives in Norwich with her beautiful daughter and some lovely stuffed animals. She does not entirely trust her cutlery.

• The music of the foxesThe hyacinth girlBarkingThe Little Boy Who LiedHow the dog lost his wingsThe UpstartPigeons in a time of famineFlyingDog’s nightmare IHungryAfter it RainedInfestationLostMeatSmileInstructions (for a game)Angels IIDog Finds out Where Knives Come FromCollisionDog’s Nightmare IIThe GuiltyRatsDe la ViandeThe DisappearingMagpie falls in LoveThe Organ PressSlow-MotionAfter Van GoghBirthingThe Black WoodGoneHellfireTest card FSuffocateSome last requestsPhoenixHere, everything is still floatingAnti-climax (or the end of a game)The Opposite of FallingPigletThree Children are Menaced by a Nightingale (After Ernst)At the show trialWinter at homeHoliday

Tarrant’s book of stories claps in blacked rooms, has a smile as wide as the Ripper’s blade, prowls in midnight back alleys until the threadbare structure of the world’s bones has some meat. It’s not jaded, it has wonder, she would stop to gain knowledge of leaves ballet dancing down in a purple sky, and that’s a rarity nowadays in this cynical world of austerity and celebrity. They could even be read to children as bedtime stories, and that is the greatest compliment I think I could give.