Normal Rules Don't Apply cover art

Normal Rules Don't Apply

 Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Normal Rules Don't Apply

By: Kate Atkinson
Narrated by: Paterson Joseph
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.99

Buy Now for $21.99

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The first story collection from Kate Atkinson in twenty years, Normal Rules Don't Apply is a dazzling array of eleven interconnected tales from the bestselling author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life

In this first full collection since Not the End of the World, we meet a queen who makes a bargain she cannot keep; a secretary who watches over the life she has just left; a man whose luck changes when a horse speaks to him.

With clockwork intricacy, inventiveness and sharp social observation, Kate Atkinson conjures a feast for the imagination, a constantly changing multiverse in which nothing is quite as it seems.

‘What really binds these stories is their underlying theme, which has perhaps always been Atkinson’s true subject: the nature of storytelling itself’ Times Literary Supplement

‘Life in all of its surreal, tragic and comic glory is perfectly captured within these pages’ Red

‘Sublime’ Good Housekeeping


©2023 Kate Atkinson (P)2023 Penguin Audio

 Anthologies & Short Stories Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Magic Magical Realism Short Stories Witty Funny

Critic Reviews

What really binds these stories is their underlying theme, which has perhaps always been Atkinson’s true subject: the nature of storytelling itself. She can be very funny, but she is highly serious about the idea that human existence is bound up with words… If you’re thinking about what fiction means, no invocation could be more thought-provoking or ironically complex
What joy! A loosely connected collection of short stories from Kate Atkinson. Life in all of its surreal, tragic and comic glory is perfectly captured within these pages.
Sublime … showcases her superb storytelling and the wit of her writing
All kinds of stories are inside these tales – fairy stories, creation myths, fantasy, Bible stories, tabloid headlines, soaps, movies and crime. Atkinson’s sly humour percolates all the way through, but there’s also humanity, hope and forgiveness... The simplicity of the short story form belies the book’s multi-layered approach. As soon as you get to the end, you’ll be tempted to just start at the beginning again to see the nuances you missed first time round, and tease out the threads that run between each tale.
Hilarious, breathtaking, horrific, irresistible ... [Atkinson is] always in command ... Heart in mouth, I never wanted this book to end
Atkinson has the happy knack of capturing the nature of her characters with arch aplomb
Dazzling ... Most striking of all is the abiding sense of infectious, slightly bonkers fun.
A deftly interconnected short-story collection [that is] varied and inventive
Funny, erudite and profound
Here you will find lots of tricks, lots of playfulness, clever narrative engineering.
All stars
Most relevant
Kate Atkinson spins these short stories a la Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen. Modern life mixed with with fables, folklore and Biblical tales.

So many Easter eggs to find along the way...

I seriously can’t begin to fathom how she wrote some of the brilliant inner monologues with such pathos - but I’m glad she did.

Narrator was excellent.

10/10

Modern Life Mixed With Fairy Tales and Fables

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This woman's writing blows me away every time. Every time I read a Kate Atkinson book I wonder why any other writer bothers to pick up a pen, she is that good. Brilliant and funny. Another masterpiece.

So good

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Halfway through, and I have to stop to savour this writing and narration. First time reading Atkinson, and I'm totally blown away by her imagination and wordsmithery.

Mesmerising craftwork

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.