Description: Guardian First Book Award Longlist Winner,The AgeBook of the Year Award "Breathtakingly strange . . .Things We Didn't See Comingis the kind of book that can inspire us to think differently about the world and entertain us at the same time. In its occasional darkness, we can also see light." -The Washington Post "Amsterdam has shaped a novel that becomes a fast-moving, nightmarish extravaganza. It is fantastic and gripping and utterly original-now you see it, now you don't, or perhaps you missed it all? It doesn't matter; read it again . . . Rarely has the darkness of life been looked at with such buoyant irony, imaginative grace and disarming candour." -Irish Times "There is a satisfying tingle in imagining an Armageddon just round the corner. But Amsterdam also gives his book an emotional heart; it lies in the contrast between the narrator's very ordinary emotions-jealousy, fear, the desire to belong-and his extraordinary circumstances . . . A memorable debut." -Financial Times "Even in the blackest scenes Amsterdam's gift for mordant humour keeps the reader entertained and depression at bay, just about . . . What makesThings We Didn't See Comingsuch an impressive novel-and very impressive debut-is the playfulness of the writing contrasted to the grimness of the subject matter. In Amsterdam's hands the apocalypse sounds like it might be fun." -The Sunday Times(London) "Disturbing and deeply smart . . . darkly comic and full of surprises. . ." -TimeOut New York "Funny, scary, and described with a flair for the telling detail . . . The strength of Amsterdam's book, as of [Margaret] Atwood's recent work, lies in its eschewing of pie-in-the-sky theorizing that so often mars science fiction. This is not a nerdy fantasy of some undiscovered galaxy. Steven Amsterdam reads the newspapers." -Harper's Magazine "As well-crafted as McCarthy's novel is, Steven Amsterdam's brilliant novelistic collection of stories,Things We Didn't See Coming, is an even better post-apocalyptic book than McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel . . . The voice in these interconnected stories is thoughtful, intelligent, savvy but not hard-boiled . . . Amsterdamhas written a literary novel, in the form of a collection of stories about a post-apocalyptic future, that deals with how, and why, people survive the most extreme traumas. It is full of horror and hope and compels you to think . . . " -News & Observer "My only problem with the collection-and this is big praise for a debut-is that the author fills his characters, particularly the randomly occurring ones, with enough life and panache to merit a full-blown novel that gives them greater voice. . ." -ChicagoSun-Times "In his award-winning debut volume of connected short stories, Amsterdam takes his lead from the apocalyptic speculations that grew more ominous by the minute as 1999 drew to a close . . . The author enters the literary world with a full-blown talent that can't be stopped." -Library Journal(starred review) "Eye-opening . . .The emphasis here is on holding fast to love and faith in even the direst circumstances." -Booklist "Stunning" -Australian Literary Review "Challenging and impressive" -The Australian "Preternaturally assured, finely crafted and thoroughly accomplished, it deserves to be read wi

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