Book excerpt: 'Misunderstandings, uncertainties, belated understandings, useless remorse, treacherous memories, stupid and irredeemable mistakes, all these irresistibly fascinate me, ' the Italian writer Antonio Tabucchi remarks. 'Life is by nature ambiguous and distributes ambiguities among all of us.' This side of life is reflected in these eleven stories. Is it choice, fate, accident, or even, occasionally, a kind of magic that plays the decisive role in the protagonists' lives?