This collection of Antonio Tabucchi’s short stories helped him become one of the key figures of twentieth-century Italian literature in the English speaking world.

A short story collection pivoting on life's ambiguities and the central question they pose in Tabucchi's fiction- is it choice, fate, accident, or even, occasionally, a kind of magic that plays a decisive role in the protagonists' lives? Set in Paris, Lisbon, Madras and New York and blended with the author's wonderfully intelligent imagination, Tabucchi reflects on the elemental aspects of the human experience, exploring grief, uncertainty, adventure, memory and love.