Wind Angels [signed jhc] by Leigh Kennedy

An encounter with an almost-familiar man on the train, letting a corpse say good-bye, tow truck drivers who know how to be first on the scene of crashes, the pain of waiting for a lift, a girl coping with horrendous tragedy in an odd place, a man's dusty longing spiced by strange mementos, the multi-era haunting of ancient Troy, the unexpected journey of a hospital faery, the dampness of almost everlasting life, a brave bicycle journey, recognition in a refugee crisis, the real meaning of still images, an orbiting space land with Cartesian diver trinkets and Conestoga hovercraft, a foreign language student in a seaside town, coming to terms with the damage of a permanently flooded English town and bats out of hell: stories of past, present and future in the American southwest, in England and away from Earth itself, a collection of the sweet and sad and unusual.

Leigh Kennedy was born in Denver, Colorado but is now at home in Hastings, East Sussex. Faces, her first short story collection, was followed by two novels, The Journal of Nicholas the American and Saint Hiroshima. Some of her survival strategies have involved deciphering doctors' handwriting, answering phones and alphabetizing things, but she would prefer to stitch and pluck strings and go for a walk. She has lived in Britain for over 25 years and has two grown children.