The Answer and Other Love Stories

Unsettling, beautiful, laced with dark humour and tenderness, The Answer and Other Love Stories explores the inner lives of those who live as neighbours, pass each other in the street and work side by side. A man returns subtly altered by the accident that could have taken his life. Another copes with fire and loss by rejecting the world he knows. A woman keeps her brand new vehicle in the darkness of her garage, running its engine every day without once letting it see the light of day. A fifteen year marriage is shaken by a fantasy. In her first work for eight years, Ray tells the stories of people dislocated from the worlds in which they find themselves, asking how well we know each other or ourselves.

Shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, Rebbecca Ray published her first novel, A Certain Age, when she was eighteen and released her second, Newfoundland to critical acclaim in 2005. The Answer and Other Love Stories is her first work for eight years. She lives in Mid Wales with her growing family.