Georg is on the verge of retirement. No one notices him anymore at the office, and there is no dinner waiting for him at home. He seems to dissolve slowly and a nameless horror seizes him. Sabrina is flattered when an artist approaches her. But when she sees herself as a work of art for the first time, she shudders. David wants to rob a bank. He already has a mask for the purpose, but he won’t be using it today. He’s heard that bank robbers often study the scene for weeks before they strike. So he’s started to lurk. We think we know our world, but then the familiar suddenly turns strange, and even frightening. In these powerfully affecting, minutely constructed stories, Peter Stamm illustrates how fragile our reality really is, how susceptible to tricks of the heart and mind.