The world of Wattle & Daub is inhabited by mysterious and peculiar creatures. A woman who fears the living thing in her apartment walls. An office-based streaker with an axe to grind. Automatons that finally recognise their creator. A disgraced crusader. A terminally ill man resorting to hypnotism to quit smoking. The couple who conceive an alarm clock. A dying brain unspooling receding memories of a funfair.With ear-dizzying force, the stories in this debut collection meld and stretch into truly new directions. Every page is mined with humour, sympathy, and blistering language that mark Brian Coughlan as a unique fabricator of short tales.