Jeremy Dyson's collection of twelve tall tales are linked by the writer's surreal slant on everyday occurrences, sensibilites and desires.
Set throughout the world, from Leeds to Eastern Europe and the Orient, we meet a flatmate who is born to save all mankind, and an 18th century automaton so beautiful men have killed in order to possess her. We are taken for a ride on London Underground's lost line which has a dark secret all of its own, and to a seemingly harmless auction of electrical goods with a devastating, hidden cost.
The metaphysical meets the mundane in a Cornish resort where the tide goes out never to return, revealing something truly extraordinary on the seabed, and in an art class where an unpromising student produces an astonishing painting, which years later proves to have a dreadful significance for his bullying teacher.