The Music: STORIES ABOUT MUSIC

James Hamilton-Paterson is surely one of the most eclectic and versatile writers working today. The Briton has written two superb books of non-fiction, Playing with Water (about his experiences living on a remote Philippine isle in the 1970s) and The Great Deep (a collection of ruminations and historical asides on the sea) , several volumes of poetry, and the novels Gerontius and Ghosts of Manila. In this, his second collection of short stories, his locales and characters are scattered all over the globe: an American pianist giving a recital in China, a clandestine political meeting in Libya, a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, a music censor in Eastern Europe, a young Filipina musician forced into prostitution. Music, particularly the high classical forms of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, provides the central themes for each story. Mozart even shows up, reincarnated as a Nigerian cardiac surgeon attending a conference in Malta. It's a daring, idiosyncratic collection, pulled off with great aplomb by a distinctive composer of prose.