table of contents

I ) The Mural　>>>
I'm a Classics teacher. One day on the staircase at my house I ran into an elderly man. He just moved in the house next to mine. He is a widower, and some people say he is a painter, others say he's a sculptor.

II) Irina >>>
In rainy Lisbon Jean was asked to be interviewed by a young beautiful woman who is a journalist. The writer, as Jean likes to be called, is fifty-six, and he has been married for thirty years. His answer is "meet me in my hotel room," his heart racing with excitement.

III ) The Virgin and the Shadow　
One evening G (one of my old acquaintances) called me up. He told me in a frightened voice, full of anxiety, that we had to meet up. What for? G came to my place, he was certainly the same G who I knew, but....

IV ) Twenty-One-Hundred Hours >>>
I met Marika in a small city in northern Romania. S was much like any town in Western Europe, at least seemingly. I had been invited to a poetry festival there.