An elusive Japanese girl leads a teenage boy into a world of passion and conflict; in Andalusia, a man talks to his painter friend about longing and belonging; a translator finds himself drawn into the personal and political turmoil of the poet he translates; a woman's quiet world is eroded by the onset of war and the movement for independence and nationhood. In his fourth collection, Aamer Hussein charts the geographies of leave-taking and homecoming, the consolations and rivalries of friendship, the yearnings of adolescence, and maturity's tentative acceptance of longing. Moving from Karachi to England, through India, Java, Italy and Spain, these exquisite stories engage with the grand narratives of our time.