Touchy Subjects Author:Emma Donoghue In this sparkling collection of nineteen stories, Irish author Emma Donoghue of Slammerkin fame, returns to contemporary affairs, exposing the private dilemmas that result from some of our most public controversies. — How do you make conversation with a sperm donor? How do you say someone's novel is drivel? Would you give a screaming... more » baby brandy? In what words would you tell your girlfriend to pluck a hair on her chin? Touchy Subjects is about things that make people wince: taboos, controversies, secrets and lies. Some of the events that characters crash into are grand, tragic ones: miscarriage, overdose, missing persons, a mother who deserts her children. Other topics, like religion and money, are not inherently taboo, but they can cause acute discomfort because people disagree so vehemently. Many of these stories are about the spectrum of constrained, convoluted feeling that runs from awkwardness through embarrassment to shame.« less