Tell Me Everything - Tapa dura

'I galloped through this - couldn't stop once I'd started ... Molly has such a strong and original voice, the writing's so spare and yet the message so complex ... spiky, sparky, pithy and deep' Kate Long 'An ambush of a novel: characters who engage and then promptly pull the rug out from under your feet, plus enough wit and insight for two novels' Michelle Lovric 'Sarah does something quite rare, I think, which is to write engagingly (even grippingly) about the emotions, but in a way which is formally experimental, often quite daring...however dark she becomes the material is always handled with such a light touch, and is never predictable, always inventive' Andrew Cowan

There are moments when you really can stop time. Make a decision to go one way, and not the other. There's just a sense, a prickle on the skin, that tells you you're at the crossroads. But it's only when you're too far along to change direction that you realise you ever had a choice. She didn't mean to tell the story, or have it end that way. She just got a little carried away. It has been several years since she confided in a teacher, but Molly Drayton is still feeling the aftershocks. When a chance meeting with a stranger leads to an offer of a room in exchange for telling her stories, she jumps at the chance. Slowly she builds a new, eccentric family around herself: Tim, her secretive boyfriend, who just might be a spy; Miranda, the lovelorn hairstylist; Liz, the lusty librarian; Mr. Roberts, landlord and listener; and his French wife, Mrs. Roberts. Much to Molly's surprise, she finds the stories she tells now are her key to creating a completely different life. Suddenly, her future is full of endless possibilities. The trouble is, Molly's not the only one telling tales. And the truth is always stranger than fiction. Sarah Salway's witty, finely-tuned and poignant story of many stories is a uniquely entrancing chronicle.