A war-ravaged Beirut is the setting for the title story of this visionary collection, a tale in which a young street fighter inadvertently discovers how to bring an to the bloodshed only to find that his solution is all too effective as far as some supposedly neutral observers are concerned. Other stories feature an assassination plot against an American astronaut, the leader of an authoritarian religious movement; a man who is destroyed by a car crash and resolves never to leave his apartment again; and the survivor of a toxic-waste ship wrecked on a deserted Caribbean island.
These 10 stories show the author at his best, displaying what Malcolm Bradbury calls his "remarkable gift for filling the empty, deprived spaces of modern life with the invisible cities and wonder world of imagination." Consider, for example, "The Secret History of World War 3," which concerns Ronald Reagan's return to the White House after too brief a retirement. Soon the country is oblivios to all except the ceaseless reports on his health, broadcast live from the Oval Office.
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