Booker Prize winning British author turns from novels to short stories in this powerful, weird, and brilliantly written book.  The tales are offbeat and disorienting for the reader but rendered in powerfully visual and tactile language.  The story of the IRA member’s attempt to kill Thatcher in the eponymous final story is particularly vividly written.  There are some other very strange stories including one about the couple of vacation on a Greek island which still gives me the shakes.  A story about a teen age anorectic and the one entitled Long QT also end with sudden shock.  Excellent volume.