A new collection of short fiction by the South African author whose debut novel was praised by J. M. Coetzee as "wholly entrancing." Sheila Kohler"s new stories range from a boarding school in South Africa where a pre-adolescent girl discovers her own mortality when an aging teacher attempts to seduce her, to a remote American mental hospital visited by an idealistic young psychiatrist from the city, to the South African veld where a young physician"s confession to his wife of a homosexual affair leads to his death. Kohler"s writing is intelligent, sensual, compassionate, always laced with irony and a subtle humor.