Nabokov's dozen - Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov

Thirteen strangely wrought, ingeniously crafted stories make up
Nabokov's baker's dozen. In some of these stories shadowy people pass
through, cooped up by life,
with nowhere to escape to. Their dreams lie
stifled,
smothered by routine and repetition, and frustrations lurk in
all the
corners. In others, elusive glimpses of fleeting happiness,
which
flutter away before they can be snatched, waylay their victims.
Like the
shimmer of the sea, the gleam of a glass caught by the sun,
they
sparkle brilliantly only to dissolve again.