This is an auction for A FEW SHORT NOTES ON TROPICAL BUTTERFLIES by John Murray.

"The characters in this vibrant debut story collection - doctors, scientists and others drawn to precise order and logic - go to political and geographical extremes in search of a sense of purpose. A young American trauma surgeon in "Watson and the Shark" works for the Red Cross in a central African country. His craving for "life-or-death, all-or-nothing situations" is cruelly satisfied. "The Hill Station" depicts a scientist in her immigrant parents' native Bombay seeking out the "real life" manifestation of the cholera bacteria she has spent her career studying in cool Atlanta laboratories. Overwhelmed by the horrors of the disease and the realization that an affair with a married colleague back home has left her pregnant, she flees the city and, on a bus headed to the tourist outpost of Mahabaleshwar, meets the man who will be a father to her unborn child. "The Carpenter Who Looked like a Boxer" is a beautifully restrained, vivid story about a gifted artisan trying to piece his life back together around the "great open wound" left by his wife's departure. Unlike many of Murray's characters, he doesn't try to run from his problems, but loses himself in his work and his two children instead. Murray's prose is strong and agile, rising to the drama of his scenarios without being overblown. The affecting portraits make this collection emotionally resonant and enormously gratifying."

• Publishers Weekly (US)

Very favourable reviews on Amazon.com.

Paperback 2004.

274 pages.

Very good condition.

The cost of shipping is $4.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston ?North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.