A breathtaking, nuanced collection of 8 stories about human connection in the face of cruelty, injustice, and uncertainty--from the acclaimed author of Death and the Maiden and Allegro . Separated from his wife on the train to Bourges--where she is set to testify against the police agent who abused her during the Pinochet dictatorship 40 years ago--Rafael agonizes over a damning secret that he may be forced to reveal. Will dredging up the past heal their wounds or open new ones? Leo, a terminally ill man, has decided to end his life, but not before fulfilling his promise to take his wife to visit the place where his late parents met amid the horrors of the Second World War, an almost magical journey that may lead him to change his mind. These are tales that range wildly--a witchcraft trial during the Hundred Years War, a dispute with undocumented immigrants in the present-day United States, a bullet narrating the experience of a firing squad--from an author who has "create[d] methods of storytelling that enact, not merely record, a political vision, that fuse both the political and literary imaginations" ( New York Times ). A stunning new collection by a legendary writer who again explores how we struggle to keep love alive in even the darkest times.