Set in a land ravaged by political upheaval and war, A Fistful of Earth and Other Stories depicts a surreal world where people find themselves trapped in circumstances over which they have no control. In a series of bizarre incidents, a researcher is baffled by the secrets he unearths about a dying clan, a monk encounters an enigmatic stranger at a railway station, a municipal commissioner suddenly goes mad for no discernible reason, a medical intern discovers a shocking secret after a patient's death, two chess-loving inmates are unable to escape from a prison long after it has ceased to be one and a refugee undertakes an odyssey through time and memory in search of his lost friend. Written in elegant and lyrical prose and traversing a range of themes, these stories will transport you to a world of conflict and persecution, of banishment and exile, of loneliness and despair but where still glimmers a hope for redemption.