Nothing is at all quite as it seems or should be in these enticingly strange and gothic stories. Stories of girls starving themselves into the shape of eels, stories of love creeping in where it shouldn’t, stories of daily life bursting at the seams and giving way to the wild. These are all freshly modern and truly original—and very British I might add. While many may be more familiar with Johnson’s “Everything Under,” short listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2018, this earlier collection is an absolute delight. A perfect companion to all the holiday travel that must be done this week.