Sweet Song of the Siren: And Other Short Stories — William Peskett

In his third collection of short stories, Thailand-based author William Peskett introduces us to a murderer who sees himself carved in stone, a writer whose dead wife returns to him through time, a robot community waiting for their saviour, a man who falls in love with part of his own body, a woman dying slowly of dementia and a troupe of wise-cracking monkeys. Humour and melancholy, comfort and suspense, this collection possesses all of these qualities, sometimes within the same story. Most are set in Thailand and provide insights into the lives of the varied populations of that exotic land; others could have happened anywhere. But what marks them out is the diversity of the storylines, the quality of the writing, and engagement with interesting characters who have something to say.