A Nobel literature laureate struggles to write a convincing suicide note. In a surreal waiting room Anna Karenina and Emma Bovary exchange confidences. A scientist discovers the appalling truth about boyhood acquaintances. These stories alight in Russia, Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas, fables that are unpredictable, sometimes poignant and often hilarious..

A dancer, a revolutionary, a banker and an Islamic terrorist are fatally linked in this cautionary tale for our times. Narrated by the irreverent, night-club pianist Baron S. and moving between the seventies and the present day, between London, Italy, Holland and Surinam, Eating Air marshals a brilliant cast of characters to tell an explosive story of greed, passion and dangerous ideals. A fiendishly clever novel ... Brilliantly funny and sharp.' Kate Saunders, Times Shocking and original ... One of the few novels about terrorism that may transcend their time.' New Statesman The language [is] pregnant with wit ... a virtuoso performance.' Stevie Davies, The Independent Compelling.' Lavinia Greenlaw, Financial Times [Has] a wild energy that demands attention.' Hermione Lee, Guardian

From comrade Shakespeare McNab who enlists the help of La Diablesse to retrieve his faltering career at a Caribbean broadcasting station, to the fourteen year old English girl who develops a terror of infinity; from the electrifying description of a woman attacked as she lies sleeping, to the lyrical exploration of the myths of El Dorado, Pauline Melville lures the reader into the intriguing different worlds. The sheer malevolence of everyday life is offset with hilarity, making the stories in Shape-shifter both unsettling and funny. Shape-shifter is a collection of stories about the transformations that result from journeys and migrations, a restless text that moves to and fro between the Caribbean and Britain creating a vividly and magically evoked 'Black Atlantic' narrative 'Notably sharp, funny and orginal, part Caribbean magic, part London grime, written in a slippery, chameleon language that is a frequent delight.' Salman Rushdie 'An exceptionally talented writer of prose...

The whole purpose of magic is the fulfilment and intensification of desire, claims the ventriloquist-narrator as he tells his stories of love and catastrophe.

In this collection of short stories, the author dabbles in and out of the occult. The reader meets Mrs Da Silva a 65-year-old matriarch of Carnival's Rebel War Band who wins the heart of a postman, and a widow who commemorates the death of her husband by winning a taverna's dance competition.