'When I listen to Bach, I seem to turn into a fish'. "Bach (Pau) in Love." 'We forget because we want to live. We forget because we live in hope for a better life. It's this wretched hope that demands that we forget the unforgettable'. "The Last Smile of Graf Tolstoy." These stories explore the nature of love, loss and memory: central to them is the uneasiness the narrators feel about their place in the world. A critical moment in the life of each narrator illuminates these themes in remarkable ways. For instance, in the story "Walter Benjamin's Pipe" the narrator wants to comprehend that...

'Those who have eyes, ' writes Georges Braque, my favourite cubist painter, 'know just how irrelevant words are to what they see.' Does this mean that I don't have the eyes to
see? Perhaps it does. But it also shows my propensity to take refuge in words. I can't draw or paint. It's only words that I can rely on. If I turn to them, this is because when my eyes look at a painting, words help me discover more about myself.