An American scientist, lecturing on cholera in Bombay, visits a makeshift hospital and makes a decision that will change her life forever. A carpenter sits in the Australian beach house he built for his adored wife, hearing strange noises in the walls. An aid worker in war-torn Africa watches, powerless, as a mission church, filled with people, is burned to the ground. John Murray's extraordinary stories unfold to reveal whole lives - people caught between the past and the present, between different cultures, and between their intellect and emotions. Muscular, atmospheric, by turns hilarious, horrifying and unbearably moving, these stories show their author to be a formidably talented writer.