Foreigners, Drunks and Babies — Peter Robinson

Better known for his award-winning poetry, here Peter Robinson turns his vividly perceptive gaze to the art of the short story, in this truly globe-trotting collection. We travel through the West of Ireland with a couple on the brink; we spy on the shadowy life of a Cold War warrior; we follow an Italian girl visiting her boyfriend in hospital. There is hand-to-hand fighting in a Soviet classroom, a girl's suicide in Japan, and an investigation into a seemingly victimless crime.

Peter Robinson was born in Salford and grew up mainly in Liverpool. As a poet, he has won the Cheltenham Prize and the John Florio Prize; his books include Selected Poems (Carcanet, 2003) and The Returning Sky (Shearsman, 2012), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.