A woman, exhausted by work and motherhood, hires the services of a sinister firm that promises her a brand-new life… Journeying across America to make a claim to an inheritance, a man must confront the shame and bigotry that has haunted his family for generations… A picture-perfect holiday threatens to unravel as two daughters come to terms with the uneasy dynamic of their new blended family… The stories shortlisted for the 2022 BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University take readers on a journey through uncertain terrain: times and places at once familiar yet deeply unsettling. From the queer love story unravelling against a desolate and disease-ravaged landscape, to a man’s earnest hunt for the killer of a boy who died in his arms, these stories are about outsiders, who seek safety and security in worlds that are chaotic, unfathomable, sometimes beautiful, and often brutal.