Povídky jedné z nejznámějších australských spisovatelek mladší generace umně spřádají fakt i fikci, aby v příbězích známých i neznámých osobností odhalily lidskou vášeň pro fetiš. Ruský spisovatel Anton Čechov, tvůrkyně slavného panoptika voskových figur Madame Tussaudová, slavná vyzvědačka Mata Hari, spisovatelka Virginia Woolfová, objevitelka rádia Marie Curieová či fotografka Margaret Cameronová – to jsou některé z historických postav, jejichž životy nám autorka přibližuje z nezvyklého úhlu.

Alice is entranced by the aesthetics of technology and, in every aeroplane flight, every Xerox machine, every neon sign, sees the poetry of modernity. Mr Sakamoto, a survivor of the atomic bomb, is an expert on Alexander Graham Bell. The pair forge an unlikely friendship as Mr Sakamoto regales Alice with stories of twentieth-century invention.

On a radiant day in Sydney, four people converge on Circular Quay, site of the iconic Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Each of the four is haunted by secrets from the past. But it is a fifth person, a child, whose presence at the Quay haunts the day and who will overshadow everything that unfolds.

We travel to find ourselves; to run away from ourselves.

A Guide to Berlin is the name of a short story written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1925, when he was a young man of 26, living in Berlin.

A group of six international travellers, two Italians, two Japanese, an American and an Australian, meet in empty apartments in Berlin to share stories and memories. Each is enthralled in some way by the work of Vladimir Nabokov, and each is finding their way in deep winter in a haunted city. A moment of devastating violence shatters the group, and changes the direction of everyone s story.

Brave...