Jim Crace's imaginative first book, seven linked stories, now available
in a deluxe paperback edition in Ecco's The Art of the Story Series
"Makes us see our own world more clearly . . . brilliant, provocative
and delightful" --the New York Times
Jim Crace's internationally acclaimed first book explores the tribes and
communities, conflicts and superstitions, flora and fauna of a wholly
spellbinding place: an imaginary seventh continent. In these seven tales
Crace travels a strange and wonderful landscape: "Talking Skull" takes
the reader to a tiny agricultural village renowned for the
sexually-charged, mystical milk of its calves; "Electricity" introduces
a remote flatland region where a monumental ceiling fan changes an
entire town's attitude toward modernization. From the acacia scrub of
the flatlands to a city bazaar jammed with vegetable stalls, tourists,
and beggars, Crace's invented world is as fabulous as it is eerily
familiar.