FROM THE AUTHOR SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE (1996) AND THE WHITBREAD PRIZE (2003) 'A highly original talent' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'Mackay's] gentle mastery of language is quite beyond showy displays of technique' GUARDIAN 'Her visual observations glittering throughout the collection like jewels' INDEPENDENT In Babies in Rhinestones, the Alfred Ellis School of Fine Art and the Araidne Elliot School of Dance and Drama stand side by side, much to their proprietors' dismay. The two trade insults daily as they exchange the mail that so often ends up in the wrong letterbox. The tension increases when the owners find that they have adopted the same stray cat. A wonderful collection of short stories presenting a picture of apparently ordinary events and the darker causes which may underlie them - an unsettling world of deceptive appearances, of hidden traps, subtle revenge and thinly-disguised menace.