The themes that thread through these nine accomplished stories are drawn from the great tradition of the twentieth-century weird tale, and they are suffused with a distinctly cosmopolitan, European feel. Mark Samuels writes about the fundamental fears of modern life, especially the effects of isolation and the dislocation that city dwellers can experience in their inhospitable, man-made environment.

Colony: There was also a telephone number. I made an appointment with

the gravel-voiced Mangan to view the flat the same evening. I had

been looking for somewhere new for months...