Since, in his 1919 essay The Uncanny, Sigmund Freud based his analysis of what keeps us up at night on a short story, it is fitting that writers should respond in kind. In this anthology, various authors offer their take on the fears Freud described, although given that his list included the omnipotent evil genius and being buried alive, it’s surprising how many have opted for more obvious categories, particularly dolls coming to life. AS Byatt gives a master-class in understated creepiness in Doll’s Eyes, her story of a frigid schoolteacher living with a coterie of toys. Mixing banal narrative details with suggestive imagery, she artfully hints at unspoken terror. Nicholas Royle’s dummy is also a clever route to a sleepless night. Established names such as Byatt and Hanif Kureishi inevitably dominate the collection, but newcomers including Adam Marek also impress. With its memorable opening sentence (‘My son’s Tamagotchi had Aids’), Marek’s story is one of the most successful of this book’s various attempts at blurring the horrific and the absurd.

Unfortunately, the best stories serve to magnify the deficiencies of the lesser ones. Alison McLeod’s offering is an interesting exploration of maternal paranoia. But after Marek’s story, it feels hackneyed, based as it is in that well-worn horror terrain, the American motel. The best stories eschew typically horrific imagery and settings, many of which have become too familiar to feel really uncanny, and instead offer glimpses of the unease which glimmers beneath the surface of everyday life. Most of what unnerves us, Freud argues, coexists with the normal – therein lies its fearsomeness. This collection proves his point.

A few more international contributions would have been welcome – only one of the stories, by Israeli writer Etgar Keret, originates from outside the UK – but still, this is a deliciously macabre collection that the old Austrian might well have enjoyed.

Ed Hancox