"The simultaneous sense of stasis and great change is Ali's forte, and her characters'
perceptions are sharp."--Publishers Weekly

Monica Ali's stunning second book is a collection of stories set in the Alentejo province of Portugal,
linked by characters and by a vivid sense of place and time.

Teresa is a beautiful young girl from the village who is supposed to marry a suitable man from the same
community but who wants to see the world. Vasco is a caf owner who is losing business to the new
internet caf down the road. The unseemly, dysfunctional, but strangely riveting Pottses are a family of
ex-patriots, trying to cobble a life together, at odds with one another until they run into trouble on the
outside. We also meet several English tourists: a young couple engaged to be married and confronting
each other's weaknesses and idiosyncrasies for the first time and an older woman imagining a new life,
fantasizing about never returning home.