The Body in the Mobile Library and Other Stories

<p>‘Staggering and unforgettable storytelling' <span>Mel Giedroyc</span></p><p><span>In his retirement at the Vatican City emeritus pope Benedict XVI is hard at work on his </span><i>magnum opus</i><span>: a high-school comedy screenplay.</span><span aria-label= class=c-mrkdwn__br></span><span>At a grimy pub in North London a doctoral researcher is abducted by gangsters peddling William Wordsworth’s handwritten account of drug-fuelled sex orgies.</span><span aria-label= class=c-mrkdwn__br></span><span>In the West African state of Benin a politician’s daughter inherits a large cash sum which she can only launder with the help of a random Englishman sourced on the internet.</span><span aria-label= class=c-mrkdwn__br></span><span>With twenty-one deliciously observed gloriously mischievous short stories - some previously narrated on BBC Radio 4 or published in literary magazines others completely new – Peter Bradshaw explores the boundary between the plausible and the absurd often with a laugh-out-loud gag up his sleeve.</span><span aria-label= class=c-mrkdwn__br></span><span>Amid the playfulness he has an enduring warmth and sympathy for every character however hapless. He offers pinpricks of light in a dark sky of confusion and pain.</span><span><br></span></p>