The Collected Stories

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“No one ever sees me write. One of the triumphs of fiction is that it is created in the dark. It leaves my house in a plain wrapper, with no bloodstains. Unlike me, my stories are whole and indestructible.” So declares Paul Theroux in his intimate Introduction to his collected short stories—the essence of his experience, spanning twenty-five years of writing. Collected here for the first time, Theroux’s tales are funny and sardonic, sensuous and evocative, streaked with terror and cruelty. All glow with Theroux’s intelligence, elegance, and ironic wit; with his marvelous sense of place; and with his tragicomic vision. Theroux’s canvas stretches from London to Southeast Asia, Boston to Paris, Africa to Eastern Europe, Moscow to the tropics. He portrays colonials, émigrés, diplomats, students, would-be writers, academics, and children. Many are trapped in alien situations, or are overwhelmed by larger cultural tremors. Full of suspense and the unexpected, this collection shows Theroux, the secret writer, as a master of the form.