MAKE YOU CRY.FUCK OFF AND GET CANCER.I HOPE YOU DIE. Urban tales of despair and dysfunction are Laura Hird's trademark and she does not disappoint in Hope and Other Urban Tales. Set in the low-rent areas of Edinburgh, Hird's slices of reality are gritty, bleak and often darkly funny. Yet the possibility of hope, always just out of reach, unifies this collection, conveying that just as circumstances can reveal the morally obscure darkness in 'good' people, so can seemingly irredeemable characters harbour well-hidden pockets of humanity.

Punchy, acerbic, sharp-witted and above-all, acutely observed, Born Free tells the story of an ordinary family who are all trying to escape from something - and each other. The interactions between Jake, Joni, Angie and Vic reveal a hellish cocktail of adolescent and mid-life crises; the savagery of sibling rivalry; the waking nightmare of a marriage gone cold - and, naturally, the unbridgeable, infernal chasm between the generations. It's a story of everyday life.

Children of Albion Rovers is the best-selling and critically acclaimed collection of novellas that features six of the most exciting young writers to emerge from Scotland in the 90s: award-winning authors Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, Gordon Legge, and James Meek and introducing the striking new talents of Laura Hird and Paul Reekie. Children of Albion Rovers is a world of tripped-out crematorium attendants (Alan Warner), vengeful traffic-wardens (James Meek), born-again vinyl junkies (Gordon Legge), and teenage girls who sexually humiliate their teachers (Laura Hird). Also included are Paul Reekie's fictional account of ideals betrayed, and Irvine Welsh's first ever sci-fi story, featuring alien space casuals wreaking havoc through the known universe. The resulting mix is intoxicating to say the least.