Vintage / Random House New Zealand, 2008. Foxing at page edges and on endpapers, two minor vertical creases on front cover, otherwise good secondhand condition.

A well-known poet pursues his elusive muse; a Kiwi makes himself indispensable in OZ; a revolutionary fast-food franchise revs up Russia's economy; a racing-car driver is airborne; a Frenchman called Foucault puts in the hard yards at an antipodean dairy farm - all while water laps at our feet, our homes, our lives . . . With Tim Jones' stories you should expect the unexpected. This remarkably refreshing collection uses a lively mix of genres, taking readers on flights of fancy, transports of delight and even occasional trips of nostalgia. Some of the stories are unique ways of looking at the everyday and ordinary, others take us out of this world.