'A Tray of Ice Cubes' by Gerard Woodward

"This is a great example of the Kafka-esque and the surreal - which you only really get in such pure form in short stories; you simply couldn't sustain it for a full novel.

It's also a great example of how not explaining is often far better better than explaining. In fact it may be beyond anyone's exact explanation.

Short stories excel through the things they don't tell you, the gaps in information; the darkness that bookends them so narrowly, making what you do get more vivid.

In this case, you not only don't know what quite happens at the end, you're left with an image which is couldn't be any stronger and couldn't be any more cryptic. I'd love to ask visitors to the site to suggest an explanation for this final image.

As the publisher and editor of the story, I have my theories, but I'd really like to know what people think ..." Ra Page, Comma Press

Gerard Woodward is the author of three award-winning collections of poetry, Householder, After the Deafening and Island to Island, and a new collection, We Were Pedestrians. He has also written two novels, August (shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Prize 2001) and its sequel, I'll Go to Bed at Noon, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2004.

Well, what do you think? e-mail us at [email protected]

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