Book excerpt: Enduring her jet-set life in Sardinia, a woman has learnt to sublimate her erotic longings caused by her husband's impotence, until a visitor offers a more immediate solution. A claustrophobic banker fears the destruction of his relationship when he discovers a yawning hole beneath the streets of Stockholm. The arrival of a gorgeous Russian piano prodigy inspires a screenwriter to look beyond his treadmill London existence. And while fixing a leaking toilet in the wilds of Sweden, Ingmar Bergman explains the predicament of lovers in a hostile world. Love Doesn't Work offers classic storytelling with profound, startling insights into human desire and its shortfalls. Inspired by the ancient Cathars, these seven tales present a vision of life as an inevitable struggle against ignorance, darkness and sexual confusion. Devilish and playful in tone, they leave the reader with a sense of outraged satisfaction and delight.