"Visceral, lyrical, compelling. Craig Snelgrove is a new authentic northern voice. The stories in this collection are rich and distinctive and explore northern working-class life with a tender insight. Does for Manchester what James Joyce's Dubliners did for Dublin." - Michael Stewart

‘Bathed in the sodium light, Kenan picked at his chips in the passenger seat of the Ford Mondeo Danny’s dad allowed him to drive on Friday and Saturday nights, bored of them. He was bored of food, generally. People often told him he was a fussy eater, but in truth it was the blandness of the Mancunian diet that he had never taken to. Sat there, with a portion of chips on his lap, a strange mood began to settle within him, bringing with it a single word, stagnation, crawled out from some unknown crevice of the mind. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever used the word before, or where he’d first heard it, or even seen it written down on a page, but it was there…stagnation, stagnation, stagnation…that word that meant being stuck or something.’

A lad is taken up Holcombe Hill in the grip of existential angst; a musical duo attend Media City to audition for a TV talent show, and they are not taking no for an answer; a woman roams the city at night, dismayed by her observations; a man goes back to confront painful memories of a cemetery chapel; a mental health support worker becomes disillusioned with the system.

Alienated from the city and themselves, young Mancunians struggle for a meaning in uncertain times. They are looking for something but don’t know what it is. They are seeking answers but unsure of what they are or where to find them. Nothing ever happens but always does. Events unfold at rapid speed throughout the sluggish days. The present merges with the past, the future has already been and gone.

Young Mancunians depicts the city of Manchester in the 21st century, a city re-born from post-industrial decline, re-made in the image of neo-liberalism, haunted by a past that can’t be erased. Behind the façade of the city centre, ever changing and in constant need for economic and territorial growth, issues of poverty, crime, and addiction are more prevalent than ever.

In his collection, Craig Snelgrove confronts the self-mythology of Manchester, offering a unique portrayal of modern life within the city, one at odds from its mainstream perception, challenging the injustices and absurdities people are faced with through original short stories, providing fresh insight into the alienating effects of the modern city.