In The Old Familiar are stories about the art of everyday shock: Hawley's characters think they know other people or themselves until the unforeseen surfaces. Whether subtle or dramatic, these moments of clarity make them question their thinking.

Dark, witty, and tightly written, The Old Familiar will surprise even the reader familiar with crusty undersides of middle?class lives, and the bizarre obsessions that harbour there. Hawley's trademark of controlled tension and psychological scrutiny is at times diabolically funny as it is emotionally arresting, and her exposure of ego and posturing in social networks will have immediate appeal for both a mainstream and literary audience.

ALIX HAWLEY studied English Literature and Creative Writing at Oxford University, the University of East Anglia, and the University of British Columbia. She is especially interested in nineteenth–century writing and children’s literature. The Old Familiar, her first collection, portrays the peculiarities we face in thinking we know other people.

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