Things We Didn't See Coming

Things We Didn't See Coming is a 2009 short story collection by the Australian author Steven Amsterdam originally published by Sleepers Publishing.

It was the winner of the 2009 The Age Book of the Year Award – Fiction.

The collection comprises nine inter-connected stories which follow one man over a period of three decades.

Contents

"What We Know Now" "The Theft That Got Me Here" "Dry Land" "Cakewalk" "Uses for Vinegar" "The Forest for the Trees" "Predisposed" "The Profit Motive" "Best Medicine"

Critical reception Writing in Australian Book Review Rebecca Starford noted that "Amsterdam takes the well-worn premise of the post-millennial apocalypse and reworks it, creating a dystopia of catastrophic climate change, drug addiction, viral epidemics, alternative relationships and bureaucratic wrangling. It is a familiar world." She concluded that the collection is the "perfect combination of uncanny landscapes, existential anxiety and social critique."

Publishing history After the collection's initial publication by Sleepers Publishing in Australia in 2009, it was republished as follows:

Pantheon Books, USA, 2009 Harvill Secker, UK, 2010 Hachette Livre, Australia, 2016

It was also translated into Dutch in 2010, and French in 2012.

Awards

2009 The Age Book of the Year Award – Fiction, winner 2009 The Age Book of the Year Award, winner

See also 2009 in Australian literature

References