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

Outstanding

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.

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

A sharp, witty exploration of relationships, art and celebrity culture

[Sheila Heti] has an appealing restlessness, a curiosity about new forms, and an attractive freedom from pretentiousness or cant…How Should a Person Be? offers a vital and funny picture of the excitements and longueurs of trying to be a young creator in a free, late-capitalist Western City…This talented writer may well have identified a central dialectic of twenty-first-century postmodern being

Funny…odd, original, and nearly unclassifiable…Sheila Heti does know something about how many of us, right now, experience the world, and she has gotten that knowledge down on paper, in a form unlike any other novel I can think of

Playful, funny... absolutely true

Sheila's clever, openhearted commentary will draw wry smiles from readers empathetic to modern life's trials and tribulations

Amusing and original