Kate Atkinson’s first collection of short stories, NOT THE END OF THE WORLD, was published more than 20 years ago. Since then, she has achieved phenomenal success as the author of literary mysteries and historical fiction, all of which still managed to capture much of the whimsy and unconventionality of her earlier fiction. Now, with NORMAL RULES DON’T APPLY, Atkinson returns to the short story form. These tales are endlessly surprising and delightful, making the book’s title thoroughly apt.

The collection opens with “The Void.” This unsettling story set in the near future is about an aging farmer who receives an alarming phone call from his daughter that seems to indicate the end of the world could be arriving. The real meaning of the odd and disturbing disaster described here is not fully revealed until much later in the book, though it’s hinted at in the opening lines: “In the beginning was the Void. Then came the Word, and with the Word the World began.”

"Readers will feel a bit like a player in a game, tasked with finding the Easter eggs that Atkinson has strewn about these stories, some of which are merely fun or clever and others of which have more significant implications."

Subsequent stories are perhaps less dramatic, but each one is surprising and delightful or memorable in its own right. There are talking dogs and horses, a sendup of classic fairy tales, a concept for a line of literature-based video games, and a rural soap opera whose subplots are so convincing that I had to Google it to make sure it didn’t actually exist. There’s even a tragicomic take on the Toy Story franchise and a satirical remix of the Prince Harry/Meghan Markle romance.

The stories --- several of which have been previously published --- are interconnected, but in a way that will seem fresh and novel to readers. Often, interconnected stories are set in the same apartment building or feature different members of the same extended family. There are some elements of that here --- the same pub and church appear multiple times, and one particular character is featured in several pieces --- but often the connections between the stories are sly and unexpected. The smoothie a character drinks in one story is the subject of a most unusual marketing campaign in another.

What’s important to note is that the stories do stand alone and would be more than worth reading in isolation. But reading them as a group involves an entirely different level of readerly pleasure. Readers will feel a bit like a player in a game, tasked with finding the Easter eggs that Atkinson has strewn about these stories, some of which are merely fun or clever and others of which have more significant implications. It’s likely that readers, once they see what Atkinson is up to, will find themselves paging back and forth among the stories. They will be on alert for connections they didn’t notice the first time around.

In this way, reading NORMAL RULES DON’T APPLY feels a bit like Atkinson’s early Jackson Brodie novels, in which many disparate storylines started to blend together in strange and satisfying ways. Here, the stories are not exactly meant to create a unified whole, but they do combine to generate a uniquely fulfilling reading experience.