The Nivashi and Other Stories

Is what we see real? Or mere illusion? In The Nivashi and Other Stories - thirteen tales, mostly about transformation - the mundane moves rapidly off the radar.The Nivashi features the ghosts of gipsies clashing with the remnants of humanity after an earthly catastrophe. But the people are hopefully destined for a life free of aggression and greed and integrated with nature. The Aloe tells of a sexually voracious woman; her alienation and closeness to the southern plant. The Confession - more a tale of unfortunate human habit than transformation - recalls the fanaticism of Franco's Spain and A Solace for the Single Man abounds with ironic humour. Varying changes to unsettle assertions are rife in the remaining tales. What delusion lies beneath the sea off the Maltese shore? Is it magic, or a man's imagination working overtime in The Encounter? And what fantasy might a father obsessed with a sick child, succumb to in the night in Gwindennith? And, after reading Woman from the Water, beware of entertaining anyone met wandering on the beach.