Set in a land ravaged by\n political upheaval and war, A Fistful of Earth and Other Stories depicts a\n surreal world where people find themselves trapped in circumstances over\n which they have no control. In a series of bizarre incidents, a researcher is\n baffled by the secrets he unearths about a dying clan, a monk encounters an\n enigmatic stranger at a railway station, a municipal commissioner suddenly\n goes mad for no discernible reason, a medical intern discovers a shocking\n secret after a patient's death, two chess-loving inmates are unable to escape\n from a prison long after it has ceased to be one and a refugee undertakes an\n odyssey through time and memory in search of his lost friend. Written in\n elegant and lyrical prose and traversing a range of themes, these stories\n will transport you to a world of conflict and persecution, of banishment and\n exile, of loneliness and despair but where still glimmers a hope for\n redemption.