The stories in this collection, by the iconic Polish writer Bruno Schulz, are tangled and suffused with mystery and wonder.

Above the narrow, winding streets of a labyrinthine city, great flocks of birds obscure the sun.

In dimly lit parlour rooms and sooty kitchens, hoards of cockroaches scuttle across floorboards and startle drowsy housemaids.

In a sanatorium surrounded by forest, time bends and warps into disturbing new shapes.

This rich new translation by Stanley Bill showcases Schulz's darkly modern sensibility, and his unmatched ability to transform the ordinary into the fantastical.

GREAT WRITERS ON BRUNO SCHULZ

'He wrote sometimes like Kafka, sometimes like Proust, and at times he succeeded in reaching depths that neither of them reached.' I. B. Singer

'Schulz's verbal art strikes us —stuns us, even — with its overload of beauty' John Updike

'Schulz redrafts the lines between fantasy and reality' Chris Power

'I read Schulz's stories and felt the gush of life' David Grossman

'One of the most original imaginations in modern Europe' Cynthia Ozick