The first half of this collection includes the sharpest, boldest, sometimes controversial and ambiguous stories by Mike Gelprin. The second half contains the funniest and most humorous ones. Most of the stories in the collection are paradoxical. Their protagonists are characters who usually deserve not the slightest sympathy. A card cheat and a bookish pickpocket. A Wehrmacht soldier and a thief-recidivist. A religious fanatic and a maimed beggar. An anthropomorphized Misfortune and a fallen angel. And yet the stories are written in such a way that the reader can’t help but start sympathizing and experiencing empathy for the seemingly negative characters. And only when they reach the final point, with astonishment they realize that they have been on the other—alien—side of the border separating good and evil, truth and lies, laughter and tears. And that this border is often thin, ephemeral, and conditional. © Storyside