DANCE MOVE is filled with mostly brilliant stories – but not all are knockouts

Wendy Erskine’s first short story collection, Sweet Home, marked the arrival of a distinctive new talent. Sharp, funny, idiosyncratic, and with an eagle eye for detail, it’s rare that the work of a debut writer should emerge so fully formed. If that book rightfully established her reputation as one of the most exciting voices in the form, Dance Move cements it.

Erskine’s voice remains unique, as clear as a freshly washed window, and the best stories here – Cell, Mathematics, Memento Mori – are powerful despite their clear lack of sentimentality, each of them guided by their own strange logic. Mathematics, for example, tells the story of a teenage cleaner who finds and cares for a seemingly abandoned child. It manages to shift seamlessly from a disconcerting, almost distressing opening, to a moving middle section, and then a gut-punch ending.

Not every story is a knockout: the unflashy prose can lead to over-simplistic results, such as in Gloria And Max, and Golem weighs down a strong idea with too much exposition and too many shifting perspectives. Still, Dance Move contains mostly brilliant stories, depicting fractured, not always likeable characters, and it’s a pleasure to watch Erskine set them dancing in the dark.