
' He writes with the craft of Julian Barnes or even Truman Capote' The Times A Spectator Book of the Year An expedition to Mars goes terribly wrong A seaside pier collapses A thirty-stone man is confined to his living room One woman is abandoned on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean Another woman is saved from drowning Two boys discover a gun in a shoebox A group of explorers find a cave of unimaginable size deep in the Amazon jungle A man shoots a stranger in the chest on Christmas Eve In this first collection of stories by the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon demonstrates two things first that he is a master of the short form (several of the stories have been longlisted for prizes) second that his imagination is even darker than we had thought