The Separate Heart - Softcover

"This accomplished debut offers a luxurious reading experience. The common theme is that of separation, of "reconciling opposites", yet each tale is strikingly different: all are equally memorable. Affecting, graceful, recalling the dispassionate precision of Elizabeth Bowen, this is a timeless collection" (Catherine Taylor Guardian)

"A terrific debut... If Robson is dropping an immaculate collection on us we should simply be grateful, for his style is witty and confident, while his robust and engaging tales are mapped out with perspicacity, exuberance and deftly summoned delicacy of feeling... dip into it for a refreshing draught of how punchy and intoxicating a well-crafted tale can be" (Independent on Sunday)

"Each of these stories is as substantial as a novel boiled down to a bouillon cube, rich in details" (The Times)

"Sharp and funny...edged with melancholy...an interesting and accomplished debut" (Sunday Telegraph)

If there is a thread running through Simon Robson's brilliant collection of stories it is the notion of separateness - of adults from each other, of children from adult knowledge, of adult consciousness from the vividness of childhood.

His protagonists are often unlikely - a cat, a man, met in a bar, who drove a chariot in Ben Hur; a girl who gets up very early - but the stories are wise, funny, beautifully observed and somehow utterly true.