A Sense of Reality: Stories

With his "sheer mastery of narrative," the British novelist takes a detour into the uncanny and wondrously absurd in these "compelling" stories (The Guardian).

An ambitious departure for an author renowned for his realism, this collection of short fiction "collectively . . . [engages] in a reconnaissance through the dustier reaches of man's experience with [the] spectres of doubt, defeat, failure and paradox" (Kirkus Reviews).

In "Under the Garden," William Wilditch, a restless loner given to...