Acclaimed Argentinian writer Antonio di Benedetto was imprisoned and tortured in Argentina during the military dictatorship and spent some time in exile in Spain. He returned home in the 1980s. The 20 stories included in this volume are a comprehensive introduction to his work, but they didn’t really appeal to me. Some of them are very short and fragmentary, and even the longer ones, although they have a narrative, still felt rather rambling and pointless, and I found it hard to relate to any of the characters. The only story I enjoyed was Huddled, about a bereft widower and his traumatised little boy. Themes of loss and suffering pervade all the stories, with elements of the magical and fantastical thrown into the mix, but I found that mix ultimately unsatisfactory and I didn’t enjoy the collection.

These stories were densely intertwined with loss and grief and that sense of feeling out of step in the world. Benedetto's style became more accessible in a way with time but I adored his earlier work as well when the metaphors were thicker and more aching. His later stories adhere more to standard narrative frames, telling stories of the days of people trying to get by. There is a certain universality to his stories-these people could be anywhere but the prose is beautiful elevating the stories above the standard.

A person's dream dog that wants more of the dreamer, a character with a head full of figurative birds to such an extent he might welcome being torn apart by dogs – yes, there are some strong images at play here from the get-go. But it's not all weirdness in this survey of the author's collected stories, for we find bruisingly honest misery for a man and his child in boarding houses when the woman of the family dies. A man suffering unrequited love sends letters to the object of his affection, until they can finally meet once more. Unfortunately, though, things change – I assume people rate the more mature di Benedetto, but I found the work that follows the first half-dozen, especially the 'Foolish Love' novella, much less interesting. But there's always a modern-day stylite, a penitent refusing to ever get off a horse, to entertain – and a grim situation for an isolated, disabled farmer's wife to find herself in.
The early style was wondrous – rich without ever being showy, quirky perhaps but perfectly within reason. And while nothing falls away too much, the selection here was not a hundred per cent – although having said that it was very enjoyable to experience this author very new to me. My netgalley seemed to leave out the introduction as well as the contents page, so I hope there's enough in the finished book to tell people what they have been missing. The fact that some uncompiled stories – and a return to weird and wonderful tales involving animal metaphors – are included at the end shows this book has done a great service to the author, and has served us well too.