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Things We Didn't See Coming

{{Short description|2009 short story collection by Australian author Steven Amsterdam}}

{{Use Australian English|date=June 2025}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}

{{Infobox book |

| name = Things We Didn't See Coming

| title_orig =

| translator =

| image =

| caption =

| author = Steven Amsterdam

| cover_artist =

| country = Australia

| language = English

| series =

| genre = Short story collection

| publisher = Sleepers Publishing

| release_date = 2009

| media_type = Print

| pages = 174 pp.

| isbn = 9781740667012

| preceded_by =

| followed_by =

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

}}

Things We Didn't See Coming is a 2009 short story collection by the Australian author Steven Amsterdam originally published by Sleepers Publishing.{{cite web|title= Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam (Sleepers)|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4555466 |access-date= 10 June 2025}}

It was the winner of the 2009 The Age Book of the Year Award – Fiction.{{Cite web |last=Steger |first=Jason |date=2009-08-22 |title=Apocalyptic novel wins book of the year |url=https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/apocalyptic-novel-wins-book-of-the-year-20090822-ge81z2.html |access-date=10 June 2025 |website=The Age |language=en |archive-date=15 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815084846/https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/apocalyptic-novel-wins-book-of-the-year-20090822-ge81z2.html |url-status=live }}

The collection comprises nine inter-connected stories which follow one man over a period of three decades.{{cite web|title= Austlit — Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam |publisher= Austlit|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C691084|access-date= 10 June 2025}}

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."{{cite web|title="Fiction: Things We Didn’t See Coming by Steven Amsterdam" |publisher= Australian Book Review, April 2009|url=https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2009/135-april-2009-no-310/11330-rebecca-starford-reviews-things-we-didn-t-see-coming-by-steven-amsterdam|access-date= 10 June 2025}}

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{{cite web|title= Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam (Hachette)|publisher= National Library of Australia|url= https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/7053832 |access-date= 10 June 2025}}

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

Awards

See also

References

{{reflist}}

{{The Age Book of the Year Awards – Fiction (or Imaginative Writing) Award}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Things We Didn't See Coming}}

Category:Australian short story collections