The Thin Line Between Everything and Nothing
Hannah Storm
£4.99 – £9.99
The Thin Line Between Everything and Nothing is a flash fiction collection that explores the fragility of human relationships and those unexpected meetings and moments that upend our familiar worlds. In her debut collection, Hannah Storm takes us to far-off countries and cultures, offering the reader a glimpse of the stories behind easily forgotten headlines, blending them with myth and magic. It is here that we meet characters often pushed to the extreme, who remind us that we are all still animals – driven by instinct and a need for protection. Woven throughout are the frequently difficult dynamics that disempower and define women and which transcend distance and cultures. From this emerges an exploration of place and safety: how those environments we may fear as most hostile can bring us the greatest peace, while those that should promise comfort engender precisely the opposite.
Praise for The Thin Line Between Everything and Nothing
Hannah Storm performs powerful storytelling magic in this stunning debut. These emotionally gripping stories span the globe, peek into far-flung corners, inhabit dark roads and sunburnt tarmacs. They show us war-weary innocents, displaced seekers, imperfect lovers, mothers and children and outsiders, all longing for something like home. Storm’s vision here is as aimed and searing as it is compassionate and wise. A breathtaking wonder, The Thin Line Between Everything and Nothing is not to be missed.
—Kathy Fish, Wild Life: Collected Works
An unbeatable combination of courage and talent. Respect.
—Vanessa Gebbie, The Coward’s Tale
Powerful writing as strong and inspiring as the writer. Hannah Storm’s short stories about little moments reveal far bigger truths about a wider, often wicked, world. They shock, they soothe; her exquisite script and extraordinary strength will keep you looking for more.
—Lyse Doucet, BBC Chief International Correspondent
Hannah Storm’s bold, brilliant writing is international in scope, digging deep into our personal geographies, a fraught territory of experiences that connect us and make us human.
—Michael Loveday, Three Men on the Edge
Hannah Storm is an award-winning writer of flash fiction. Her work won the ‘I Must Be Off!’ travel writing competition, placed second in the Bath Flash Fiction Award in 2020 and was highly commended in the TSS Flash Fiction Prize. She has been shortlisted for several other competitions and her stories have been published widely online and in print anthologies. Hannah began writing flash fiction after 20 years as a journalist travelling the world and her writing is tribute to the people she met in her work. She also writes creative non-fiction to process her own experiences and is working on a memoir. She has recently completed her first novel. Hannah lives in the UK with her family and by day runs a journalism charity and works as a media consultant specialising in gender, mental health and safety. The Thin Line Between Everything and Nothing is her first flash fiction collection.
Louise Mangos (verified owner) –
“The Thin Line Between Everything and Nothing” is a magnificent journey to the far corners of the world while also exploring the deep recesses of the psyche. The narrative of many of the pieces takes the reader right out of their comfort zone with themes of domestic violence, migrant tragedy and war-torn nations. Storm’s writing will take your breath away. Some stories will shock and break your heart. Each piece is best read with a break between to savour the bombardment of the senses. There’s a strength and power in so many of the pieces written in the second person, making the reader feel almost guilty for what we cannot do to alleviate the world’s atrocities. But Storm’s beautiful writing keeps us tentatively hanging on and begging for more.
Anne Eyries (verified owner) –
This collection stands out because it engages the reader entirely. These flash stories diffuse a warm honesty, alive with tensions and memories, and they are not trying to trick us. They are real stories, not anecdotes, where things happen and we care about the outcome: “she stands on the fault lines of her future and wonders what has happened to the fabric of her past”, where sometimes the thin line between fiction and non-fiction is painfully thin. The characters are believable, allowing us to identify and empathise with them and forgive them their flaws. The writing is smooth and strong, words chosen to enable us to conjure up a whole scene: “throw dice and dark humour, staving off the boredom of waiting and the trauma of witnessing”. While some stories will speak louder than others to our personal taste, they all have a voice and something to say, show and share. This collection is like a necklace: each gem is different and admired individually, together they reflect consistency and polish.
Amanda Huggins (verified owner) –
Hannah Storm’s writing is bold and powerful. These brief moments and fleeting encounters shine the brightest of lights on the darkest corners of the world, illuminating and examining the fragility of life and relationships. Storm writes with empathy and wisdom, exploring the stories of the displaced and lost as they strive for connection. In this compelling debut collection she shows us what it means to be human.