Light Lifting

An exceptional debut collection of stories from an assured new talent.

A thoughtful, beautifully crafted, big-hearted work

Alexander MacLeod's control of cadence and rhythm is so complete that it seems effortless. These stories offer a real pleasure which comes from the sense of life and emotional honesty in them. The pleasure also comes from their beautiful tone and something in the voice which is both relaxed and perfect. They contain a rare kind of truthfulness.

Every so often a new writer comes along with a true gift for language...an elegant, conversational simplicity

Brilliant...engrossing, thrilling and ultimately satisfying: each story has the weight of a novel

Rarely does fiction inhabit the body - the moving, athletic body - as fully as in Alexander MacLeod's debut story collection... Sensitive and subtle, MacLeod is a writer through whose deliberately partial and quotidian pieces shimmers life's unspoken complexity.

[MacLeod's] capacity to encapsulate entire lives in the span of a few pages rivals Alice Munro. This is one of the finest collections of short fiction to appear . . . in a long, long time.

Quill & Quire (Best Books of the Year citation)

Stunningly assured debut...the quality of this collection, is remarkable...for me, a good short story always leaves the reader wanting more. On this evidence, I certainly want more Alexander MacLeod.

Light Lifting arrives bearing Giller Prize and Frank O'Connor Award nominations. These are more than warranted. Alexander MacLeod looks like a heavyweight in the making

MacLeod structures the [stories] brilliantly, deftly switching from one narrative thread to another whilst maintaining a pulse-quickening tension

It feels - like a truly good short story should - crafted, meant, complete. He's his father's son alright.

MacLeod shows himself to be a highly accomplished writer able to generate atmosphere, produce credible characters and dialogue, and enter a variety of situations

The collection is shot through with an intensely-felt physicality and honesty, and beautifully textured. You’ll want to re-read it as soon as you finish

Brutally hard and blub-provokingly tender by turns, they’re the work of a writer proving himself to be a proper Carver-esque class-act.

MacLeod, the son of revered Canadian novelist and short story writer Alistair MacLeod, has recently been shortlisted for four literary prizes. On this evidence, he deserves it

Alexander Macleod is clearly a serious writer who observes the world closely

Ontario writer Alexander MacLeod’s Light Lifting arrives across the Atlantic laden with praise.

A gripping, controlled collection that wields a wonderful distilled power.

Short stories aren’t usually known for boosting adrenaline levels, but Canadian author Alexander Macleod’s debut collection isn’t one for the bedside table… firmly rooted in work and family Macleod’s relaxed story-telling will make you feel anything but

Tipped as one of the best books of the year by Canadian critics…these are superbly crafted tales…MacLeod does his father proud with this debut

Both visceral and gracious in approach he delicately balances the physical stress and strain of everyday lives with mental and emotional tolls

Alexander MacLeod was born in Inverness, Cape Breton and raised in Windsor, Ontario. His first collection of short stories (Light Lifting, Biblioasis 2010) was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Prize, two Atlantic Book Awards, and went on to become a national bestseller. Alexander holds degrees from the University of Windsor, the University of Notre Dame, and McGill; he currently lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and teaches at Saint Mary's University in Halifax.

Light Lifting is a suite of darkly urban, unflinching elegies. The seven stories each encompass a keenly observed, immersive world, rooted firmly in the real life of work and family. They are elemental stories of work and its bonds, of tragedy and tragedy barely averted, but also of beauty and love and moments of pure transcendence.

Alexander MacLeod

The eight stories in Alexander MacLeod's excellent second collection, composed in crystalline prose, glimmer and gleam with yearning and loss, as strange longings overwhelm his finely-drawn characters.

Mesmerising... MacLeod...explore[s] the absurdities and dislocations of twenty-first-century life.

A five-star book. I loved it. Eight short stories, each one satisfying and complete... They all have a kind of yearning, a voice that is intimate, often troubled, but each shines a light on relationships good and bad.

MacLeod's stories seemed startlingly strange, until I realised they were about my own life. A book full of truth, sadness and mercy.

Alexander MacLeod's control of cadence and rhythm is so complete that it seems effortless. These stories offer a real pleasure which comes from the sense of life and emotional honesty in them... They contain a rare kind of truthfulness.

A thoughtful, beautifully crafted, big-hearted work.

Taut to a point of richness, deft in the dark, with an understanding of narrative suspense that's somehow actually beautiful, Light Lifting is a powerful collection and the debut of a writer clearly a master of the form.

Brilliant...engrossing, thrilling and ultimately satisfying: each story has the weight of a novel.

Alexander MacLeod looks like a heavyweight in the making.

The highly anticipated follow-up to Alexander MacLeod's critically acclaimed debut, Animal Person is a wry and perfectly-observed collection of short stories about intimacy, family and the struggle to connect 
 
Animal Person is a collection of startling juxtapositions. Criminals and bystanders, siblings and strangers, infants, adolescents, young parents, and the elderly, mammals, reptiles and fish: unexpected encounters occur and every meeting is an opportunity for recognition or rejection. 
 
An empty-nest couple, separated after years of coexisting, find themselves pulled into the dreams of their silent, gazing rabbit; a mysterious passenger in search of his missing suitcase roams through the caverns of a 1970s LA airport; a piano recital goes wildly astray; and a great-aunt refuses to apologise as she struggles to find a place for everything in the tight space of her senior's apartment. In the adjoining motel room, a serial killer plans his next move; and a petty argument between two sisters is interrupted by an unexpected visitor. 
 
The eight stories in Animal Person are filled with wonder and yearning as MacLeod captures the fleeting intensities that shape all of our lives. MacLeod is a master of the short story form, and this is a collection that beats with raw emotion and shimmers with the complexity of our shared human experience. 
 
'Exquisite...expertly paced and finely observed' New York Times 
 
'Excellent... The eight stories, composed in crystalline prose, glimmer and gleam with yearning and loss' Eithne Farry, Daily Mail 
 
'Tender, funny and ever-surprising' Lynn Coady

Alexander MacLeod

Praise for Animal Person

The eight stories in Alexander MacLeod's excellent second collection, composed in crystalline prose, glimmer and gleam with yearning and loss, as strange longings overwhelm his finely-drawn characters.

Exquisite.

Mesmerising... MacLeod...explore[s] the absurdities and dislocations of twenty-first-century life.

The eight stories in Alexander MacLeod's excellent second collection, composed in crystalline prose, glimmer and gleam with yearning and loss, as strange longings overwhelm his finely-drawn characters.

Exquisite.

Mesmerising... MacLeod...explore[s] the absurdities and dislocations of twenty-first-century life.

The eight stories in Alexander MacLeod's excellent second collection, composed in crystalline prose, glimmer and gleam with yearning and loss, as strange longings overwhelm his finely-drawn characters.

Exquisite.

Mesmerising... MacLeod...explore[s] the absurdities and dislocations of twenty-first-century life.

Books by Alexander MacLeod

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