In the Time of Foxes

In the Time of Foxes presents the fox as a survivor, a spirit animal for our times. And foxes of all kinds - real and figurative - dart through this stunning debut collection of short stories, which take shape as parables of modern life, each one richly observed, suspenseful and surprising.

We move from Brexit London to high-rise Hong Kong, a hot spring town in Japan, the Moscow of oil-rich Russians, a drought-stricken Australian town and even a colony on Mars. Throughout, the stories speak to the human condition, showing us at our best and worst. Bad behaviour is here in spades, but so is irony, wit and grace.

Inspired by the adage that the fox knows many things, this book speaks to a world of flux, in which we must adapt in order to survive. They balance gravity and lightness, in a long tradition that ranges from Chekhov's classic stories to Alice Munro and Elizabeth Strout, or even Curtis Sittenfeld's recent collection, You Think It, I'll Say It.