Pretty Ugly

Pretty Ugly by Kirsty Gunn is the inaugural title in a new series of short story collections from Landfall Tauraka and Otago University Press, celebrating the art of short fiction in Aotearoa New Zealand.

In Pretty Ugly, Kirsty Gunn reminds us that ambiguity and complication are elemental forces in a human life, and grist to the storyteller’s mill. These 13 darkly compelling stories, set in New Zealand and in the UK, are testament to Gunn’s unrivalled ability to look directly into the troubled human heart and draw out what dwells there. The ‘ugly’ of these stories, she writes, is to do with ‘considering how much a person’s life can bear’.

Longings, compulsions, jealousies, dreams; ambitions realised, desires denied: Gunn’s steady, clear-eyed gaze unsettles complacencies, reveals duplicities, and gathers us all into the fold. She brings unease and compassion for the human condition in equal measure to the page. Each of these stories is an exquisite, thorn-sharp bouquet.

'I am fully in love with Kirsty Gunn’s stories. They hit the heart of life so truly it makes me quiver.’ —Jane Campion

‘What sets Gunn apart is her profound ability to anatomise the complexities of appearances, the dissonance between what is seen and what is felt. She thrills and unsettles in equal measure in this darkly glittering collection. Pretty spectacular.’ – Catherine Chidgey