Giselle Leeb’s debut short story collection, ‘Mammals, I Think We Are Called’, is published by Salt (Oct 22) in their Salt Modern Stories series.
Ambitious and playful, darkly humorous and imaginative, these strikingly original stories move effortlessly between the realistic and the fantastical, as their outsider characters explore what it’s like to be human in the twenty-first century. Whether about our relationship with the environment and animals, technology, social media, loneliness, or the enormity of time, they reflect the complexities of being alive. Beautifully written and compelling, you won’t read anything else like them.
Reviews
Everything that makes a great short story is here.
– Tania Hershman
Order a copy from:
International:
- Blackwells
- South Africa: Takealot.com or loot.co.za
- Bookshops worldwide can order.(Penguin Distribution)
Giselle Leeb

Giselle Leeb’s debut short story collection, ‘Mammals, I Think We Are Called’, is published by Salt (Oct 22). Her short stories have been widely published in journals, magazines, and anthologies, including Best British Short Stories 2017 (Salt), Ambit, Mslexia, The Lonely Crowd, Litro, Black Static, and Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. She has been placed and shortlisted in competitions including the Ambit, Bridport and Mslexia prizes, and won the Seventy2One Short Story Competition for climate fiction, judged by Lucie McKnight Hardy. Shie is a Word Factory Apprentice Award winner 2019 and was chosen to attend the David Higham Associates New Writers’ Open Week in 2021. She is an assistant editor at Reckoning Journal. She grew up in South Africa and lives in Nottingham.
Blog
- Indie BUK Fest ’23 with Robin Ince and local authors
- Mammals, I Think We Are Called: When Death Is Over
- Mammals, I Think We Are Called: A, and I
- Mammals, I Think We Are Called: Pain Is A Liar
- Apple Podcast #2: ‘Mammals, I Think We Are Called, with Daniel Lucas
- Mammals, I Think We Are Called: Hooked
- Mammals, I Think We Are Called: Wolphinia
- Mammals, Video Interview: TSS Publishing
Watch, Listen, Read
- Apple Podcast #2: ‘Mammals, I Think We Are Called, with Daniel Lucas
- Mammals, Video Interview: TSS Publishing
- ‘Mammals, I Think We Are Called’ – LeftLion Review by Lizzy O’Riordan
- Shepherd booklist: The best genre-bending, literary short stories to fire your imagination
- Apple Podcast: ‘Mammals, I Think We Are Called, with Daniel Lucas
- Radio interview, Sunburnt Saints anthology, Chiltern Voice Book Club
- Reading from ‘The Goldfinch is Dead’, in Sunburnt Saints: An Anthology of Climate Fiction, Roaring Radio, Soho Radio
- Hidden Treasures: Live Panel Discussion on the Anthology with Fincham Press, Roehampton University