Forty short stories and essays have been selected as representative of the Argentine writer's metaphysical narratives.

"Gorgeously translated by Lydia Davis, the miniature stories of A. L. Snijders might concern a lost shoe, a visit with a bat, fears of travel, a dream of a man who has lost a glass eye: uniting them is their concision and their vivacity. Lydia Davis in her introduction delves into her fascination with the pleasures and challenges of translating from a language relatively new to her. She also extolls Snijders's "straightforward approach to storytelling,...

Ten tales whose protagonists are modern Japanese women in today's urban setting, usually sexually unsatisfied and with a penchant for the sado-masochistic.