In keeping with his powerful first collection, A Little Javanese, these seven new stories by Andre Mangeot roam the globe, exposing human frailty in its many forms. In central Europe a wayward son takes up the reins of the family business; a journalist heads into the Sahara in search of her past; a retired Canadian teacher is forced to question much he has believed ...

Flood, heat, desert and snowscape are here almost characters in themselves - edging certain stories to their climax, elsewhere simply observing how we humans write our own stories and endings.

Played out against the grinding poverty of street children, in drug fuelled Miami bars and alleys, amongst the detritus of a deserted Thai beach or in the complex world of musical genius - we are witnesses to love, betrayal, self-delusion, the nature of hope and loyalty.

These compelling and beautifully crafted stories show us that humanity has more that binds us together than separates us. That action and consequences all have a cost and that truth and lies are sometimes only divided by a heartbeat.