Stories that paint vivid images of the lives they describe - I thoroughly enjoyed these and would recommend to all. I also enjoyed her other work "Love in a Fallen City"

I admit I bought this for the titular story and hadn't realised just how short that story is. Short stories can of course be masterpieces. This, I'm afraid, was not. The ideas, the setting, the plot, is too good to be skimmed over in such an underdeveloped way. Perhaps something is lost in translation. I could barely keep track of the characters (there are far too many for such a short story) and felt nothing for any of them. No real attempt seems to be made to make the reader care. I suspect this has made a better film (I hear it has been turned into a film, though I haven't seen it). There are great ideas about espionage, passion, history, etc - but they just don't come across clearly or in an interesting way as it is. A shame. It didn't inspire me to read the rest of the stories in this collection. Two stars rather than one because, in fairness, the IDEAS if not the execution of the setting/characters/plot are good.