Hot Little Hands

Abigail Ulman's debut collection follows a constellation of young women navigating the charged, often disorienting terrain of desire. Set across different cities and life stages, the stories track characters from adolescence through their late twenties as they reckon with wanting, being wanted, and the complicated space between the two. Ulman writes with precision and wit, finding the absurd and the tender in ordinary moments without softening their edges.

Gemma Whelan, best known for her television work, brings a dry intelligence to the narration that suits Ulman's voice perfectly. She shifts registers fluidly between deadpan humor and quiet vulnerability, giving each story its own distinct texture without overplaying any of them. The collection's episodic structure works well in audio, with each piece arriving as its own contained experience across the eight-plus hour runtime. Whelan's restraint is the right call for material that lands hardest when it trusts the listener to feel the weight.