Dark, mystical, comforting, humorous, terrifying and terrific - this book works like a slow poison causing an unexplainable terror and unease that stays with you for hours.

The first three out of fourteen chapters would take you so deep into the trenches of your subtlest fears, that it might be impossible for you to get out of it.

After that, the next eleven chapters just play tricks with your mind - making it bask in the warmth of emotions when it starts expecting trouble and then suddenly clouding a bright sunny day.

The choice of the last chapter couldn't have been better. The slow poison finally makes you sense that the poison resides within all of us...some of us have chosen to come to terms with it.

It's everything that I was looking for. It would take me days now to get over my stupor.

Some really weird stories. Some really beauriful ones

My first introduction to Louis de Bernières's writing and I loved it. The stories were beautifully written yet without the kind of artifice or laggard pace that seems to weigh down much of literary fiction, characters were drawn so naturally and affably, and each story explored something thought provoking but in a disarmingly lighthearted way.

such a quirky short story & so much of it in just 30-odd pages. i loved it & it's stayed in my mind for years...

I loved it, felt like I was exploring different parts of the world in each story.

An wonderfully written collection from the author who lays out a veritable banquet of funny, challenging, and entirely heartfelt tales in this collection. De Berniere's revisits Captain Corelli's Mandolin in one of the stories, which is a pleasant surprise, especially for anyone who enjoyed the novel as much as I did. Fans will lap it up. Similarly, anyone looking for a humorous collection of short stories will also find plenty to enjoy in its pages.

This is an outstanding collection of short stories. I haven't laughed this hard while reading in a while. While I prefer his longer novels, this collection shows the depth of his abilities.

Upon reading the first few lines I was reeled in. Bernieres is a favourite author and story teller.
There's something soothing about his use of words, almost as if an old man is reciting memories to you.
Favourite stories from this collection:
Labels
Romance on the Underground
The Two Dolphins
Gunter Weber's Confession (A follow up story of a character from Captain Corelli)

I was introduced to Bernieres work via 'Captain Corellis Mandolin' and it is one of my all time favourite books because I spent my early 20's in Cyprus and living in student accomdation with Cypriots in Lancashire, UK too. The Greeks are dear to my heart and so Captain Corellis Mandolin made me both chuckle and cry.
I then went on to read 'Birds without Wings' which was just as wonderful and heart-wrenching.

Labels is warm, witty and a quirky exploration of what it is to be human. Another beautiful book of his.
The only issue I had was that whilst every main character came from beautiful cultures, all of them were men. The same can be said about Captain Corelli (with the exception of Pelagia as a side character)....I hope his other books or future books have an interesting female protagonist.

I didn't know Bernieres is a poet...I shall be reading more of his work for sure!

I'm not going to give this an overall rating as I found the quality of the stories to be extremely variable, at least in so far as they held my interest. As a general rule of thumb, I found the South American ones to be of least interest, whereas the more contemporary ones I enjoyed more. Funnily enough I only just realised, by employing the word 'contemporary' in that previous sentence, that I do in fact think of the South American stories to be set in the imprecisely-defined past, somewhere mid-20th century (at the latest), although I'm not certain that's ever made explicit in the text.

Anyway, there are a couple of real gems here (my favourites being 'Romance on the Underground' and 'The Deposit'), half a dozen good ones, and a few clunkers. Worth a read, though, especially for the gems.

Bazı hikayeleri beni kitaba kitlerken bazı hikayeler kitabı camdan fırlatmama sebep olacak kadar sıkıcıydı (kitabı camdan fırlatmadim). Ve sadece bana mi böyle geldi bilmiyorum ama her hikayede aynı şeyi okuyormuşum gibi hissettim. Içerik her ne kadar farkli da olsa anlatım her hikayede tekrara düşmüştü.

As others have said, it is hard to give a solid starred review to a series of short stories, and it is particularly difficult here as I found they did have quite a great variance.

I read the first 2 stories and put this book down, not having felt connected with it at all. It was only a previous enjoyment of 'Blue Dog', also by Louis de Bernières, that made me pick this up for another go (around 3 months later) before returning it to the library. I'm so glad I did.

There is some surrealism here- stories which don't necessarily have a solid place and time and which have magical elements. A strong thread running through were stories set in South America, and this continent was painted in a captivating light with folk tales contrasted alongside the reality of abusive relationships and the at times dangerous streets.

There were some moments of real humour. 'Andouil and Andouillette' had me laughing aloud, whilst 'Romance on the Underground', 'the Deposit', 'Stupid Gringo' and 'A Day Out for Mehmet Erbil' felt touching and represented different aspects of human nature and life. Sometimes life has wry twists, and sometimes there is an inevitable failure for it to live up to expectation. It does feel there is humanity and a vast amount of differing representation amongst these stories. De Bernières is a great writer and I did find myself feeling emotion in amongst these stories and being left with things to reflect upon.

These stories are sparkling, varied, wildly imaginative, set in South America, France and England. The author examines human foibles, eccentricities and downright failings compassionately, with understanding and with occasional humour. I would sincerely recommend it.