Stacy Hardy’s debut short story collection a superb, visceral treatment of love and loss, writes Liesl Jobson STACY Hardy’s debut publication is a staggeringly good short story collection. Taking its title from punk rock singer-songwriter Patti Smith’s smash hit, Because the Night, these daring and acerbic tales push the reader to a stark edge. In the place where displacement and longing merge, you are given the opportunity to explore the minute filaments of life in all its shades of violent desire, aspiration and disappointment.Echoing the themes in the song Hardy takes up issues of lust and loss. Frequently unnamed first-person narrators find their voices at night, where darkness manifests as cruelty and unconsciousness. There, it collides with the madness begat by trauma. Hardy’s treatment of these universal experiences is superb and visceral. Surviving, emerging or entirely losing the plot, the characters in this book are disturbingly recognisable.DetailsTITLE: Because the Night...
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