More Sawn-Off Tales

Reading David Gaffney's flash fiction feels a lot like travelling from an atom to a planet in the space of a minute. By turns sharp, poignant, surreal, lyrical and very, very funny, the collection reveals intense knowledge and control of the form, along with a desire to push the boundaries in every direction to see exactly how much flash can do (the answer: A Lot). His titles alone are miniature works of art; anyone who calls a story 'The three rooms in Valerie's head' or 'The mousemats say innovate or die' has to be a genius. -- Emma Jane Unsworth These perfectly constructed fictions are eliptical, sharp, witty and dazzling. They're written with a poet's eye for detail and a novelist's appreciation of human faults and foibles. Another wonderful collection. -- Jenn Ashworth Gaffney's latest is a masterful taster menu, every mouthful wickedly inventive and deliciously absurd. Brilliant -- Adam Marek

In stories that are laugh-out-loud funny, cringingly weird and desperately sad, Gaffney introduces the possibility of momentary actions that change everything; a swimming man sees a hundred glass eyes at the bottom of a river; and a comedian decides to express himself through the medium of smell.

In stories that are laugh out loud funny, cringingly weird and desperately sad., Gaffney introduces the possibility of momentary actions that change everything;  a swimming man sees a hundred glass eyes at the bottom of a river; a broken vase causes a couple to re-examine their relationship with the universe; a zoo with only three animals makes a man reconsider his relationship to his surrounding; and a comedian decides to expresses himself through the medium of smell.

Relationships begin, stutter, then crash to earth, each mundane transaction peeling away the everyday to reveal a canyon of emotion.

Gaffney’s characters are awkward, often disconnected, yet they are also profoundly sympathetic. With great empathy and generosity he reveals the idiosyncrasies, vulnerability, yearning, and twisted systems that governs our lives. In More Sawn-off Tales David Gaffney creates a deliriously lonely, yet lovely universe where strangers hand you their watch and an estranged couple try to communicate through paint colour. An expert miniaturist with the ability to stuff an elephant inside a flea without the insect noticing, Gaffney is like David Shrigley meets Curb Your Enthusiasm.