Although the stories vary greatly in style (from surreal and experimental to realist) and in length (from two pages to thirty-eight), they are united by the subtle, unsettling ways in which they explore the details of domestic fractures. Almost all deserve further mention here, and even the weaker contributions resonate, but some shine. In Madeleine Griffeth’s ‘Lungfish’, a young Serbian-Thai boy struggles to accept his father’s impending death, while the devastating ‘France, Army, Head of the Army, Josephine’, by Melanie Joosten, charts a man’s trip to Paris to bring his sister home. Lucy Treloar’s meditative ‘Wrecking Ball’ examines dual yearnings for security and destruction, while J.Y.L. Koh’s ‘Two’ is an absurdist sprint through the regimented life of a man who decides that, if life is fleeting, he will beat it. Ben Birchall’s concise ‘Six Week Performance Appraisal, Walter Birchall’ wittily evaluates the arrival of a new baby, while Anica Boulanger-Mashberg presents a fabulist account of a turbulent relationship in ‘Clare Blue’. Belinda Rule experiments with form in the poignant and funny ‘Statement of Claims on Behalf of My Father’.

This is a worthy celebration of Sleepers Publishing’s tenth year.