The torturer's apprentice : stories

Powerful, moving and elegant, these stories cover every aspect of the human condition, from tales of the family to those of the macabre... A man watches his family dine as he sits in his car at the kerb, and realises he lives in a household of strangers ... Menaced by a gang of skinheads in a Jewish cemetery, an American tourist in Germany placates the Neo-Nazis with a formula he continues to repeat even after he is safely back home ... the problem of a ghost in a nursery ... the often surprising demands of love ... These elegant, eloquent stories engage the world in sometimes shocking ways, surprising in their plotting, sly in their humour.

Such mastery of craft is impressive, and whether it seeks to amuse or move, each story has the power and style to affect the reader to the very core...