Pieces for the left hand - J. Robert Lennon

A student's suicide note is not what it seems. A high-school football rivalry turns absurd - and deadly. A much-loved cat seems to have been a different animal all along. A pair of identical twins aren't identical at all - or even related. A man finds his own yellowed birth announcement inside a bureau bought at auction. Set in a small American town, told in a conversational style, Pieces for the Left Hand is a stream of a hundred anecdotes, none much longer than a page. At once funny, bizarre, familiar and disturbing, these deceptively straightforward tales nevertheless shock and amaze through uncanny coincidence, tragic misunderstanding, strange occurrence or sudden insight. Unposted letters, unexpected visitors, false memories - in Pieces for the Left Hand, these are the things that decide our fate. Wry and deadpan, powerful and philosophical, these addictive little fables reveal the everyday world as a strange and eerle place.