The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature describes Johnson’s writing as “marked by a dry irony, a sharp-edged humour that focuses unerringly on the frailties and foolishness of her characters …” and this collection is very much that.
Stephanie Johnson is one of New Zealand's most accomplished novelists and short story writers. In this sparkling, characteristically bold collection of stories written over some twenty years, she explores the various, frequently vexed preoccupations of our times – politics, religion, conservation and climate change, love, sex, aging, addiction, greed, travel – as well as the strange, even comical human impulses that drive individual, family and broader social behaviour. Varied in tone and style, and ranging in scope from New Zealand to Australia and beyond, they showcase Johnson’s skills and typically subversive vision, challenging social norms and skewering pomposity and privilege wherever they may be found. These twenty-seven stories cement her reputation as a writer with a unique ability to blend humour and high seriousness, horror and hilarity, irony and compassion. All display her unerring talent for bravura storytelling.