Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Love Your Enemies | 1993 | Nicola Barker | Buy |
| 2 | Heading Inland | 1996 | Nicola Barker | Buy |
| 3 | The Three Button Trick | 1999 | Nicola Barker | Buy |
Nicola Barker’s three short story collections all appeared in the 1990s, during the early phase of her career. Love Your Enemies (1993) won the David Higham Prize for Fiction and introduced readers to her offbeat sense of humor and keen eye for social awkwardness. Heading Inland (1996) and The Three Button Trick (1999) continued in the same vein.
These collections are where Barker first developed the comic voice and observational sharpness that would carry over into her novels. They’re also some of the most approachable work in her catalog, with individual stories that demonstrate her strengths without the ambitious structural experiments of her later fiction.