A retired academic is called to a remote university to speak as the replacement for an old friend recently deceased in unusual circumstances. The Stand-In is a transcript of these lectures, revealing
Mystery Stories is inhabited by absence: strange truancies (with equally strange arrivals), missing friends, lost lovers. The survivors are left behind to navigate the pitfalls of memory while trying
Warren Thouless, recently retired teacher, long-retired actor, aspiring thinker, stuffed up in a small basement room that fell into disorder: that's how the narrator of Smuggling Donkeys sees himself.
Absolutely wonderful."?Francine ProseWritten in France toward the end of his career, these stories are Anton Chekhov's only attempt at the linked collection. "A Man in a Shell" is a grotesque Gogolian
