Kennedy, Alison Louise. (b. 1965).

W o r k

- a Scottish novelist, short story writer, reviewer, non-fiction writer, screenwriter, and stand-up comedian

- characteristic for her obsessive and compulsive tone, original language, and dark humour

Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains (1990):

- a bleak collection of short stories set in Scotland

- her first collection establishes her as a writer of intimate narratives exposing vast areas of feeling behind the surface of ordinary lives

- often deals with single women who are neither happy nor content within relationships

Looking for the Possible Dance (1993):

- a novel centring on a young Scottish woman's developing relationships

- progresses from the passionate attachment to her father to the more complicated relationship with her lover, and continues to examine wider social relationships between pupil x teacher, employee x employer, and individual x state

So I Am Glad (1995):

- a novel focusing on the trauma of child sexual abuse and its consequences in adulthood

- the protagonist is forced to come to terms with her suppressed experience through the words she speaks as a professional voice-over artist

Everything You Need (1999):

- a study of depression and/or a warning about the dangers of writing

- a novel about a burnt-out middle-aged writer, estranged from his wife to whom he is still devoted, and his adult daughter whom he has not seen for fifteen years

- set on an isolated island where a group of writers find their retreat and where the father invites his daughter to meet her without revealing his identity

Day (2007):

- a novel on the damage inflicted by WW II on the life of a former prisoner-of-war