Wildly imaginative and endlessly entertaining, Georgi Gospodinov's short stories provide a hint of the narrative complexity of Borges and a whiff of the gritty realism of pre- and post-Communist life in Eastern Europe. These stories within stories and contemporary fables—whether a tongue-in-cheek crime story or the Christmas tale of a pig, a language game leading to an unexpected epiphany or to an inward-looking tale built on the complexity of a puzzle box—come together in unique and surprising ways, offering readers a kaleidoscopic experience from one of Bulgaria's most critically acclaimed authors.