Don't Read This Book If You're Stupid - Tibor Fischer

This book consists of seven short stories, the first and last of which could be considered novellas, and they go like this: WE ATE THE CHEF is about a man who runs his own business designing websites, but wishes he was just an ordinary employee without all the responsibility and worry: "Being your own boss boiled down to choosing which arse you hoped to lick next or which pile of shit you shovelled next; that was it." When he takes his first holiday for eight years, having been invited to share a villa in Nice with an old schoolfriend, it turns out that two Russian girls and his main business rival have been invited along too... Now ...

First things first, don't be put off by the title of this rather pretentious sounding book. Because it is far from pretentious. It is a work of short stories, all them deeply absorbing, dark and above all, extremely different in their way of seeing life and emotions. Here we meet a wealth of unusual characters - a man who prefers living in libraries and bookshops, another whose business is going down the drain so he heads off to France to escape from it all and learns more about himself and the man who paints dogs with an unnerving view on murder. One of the main reasons why I bought this book was the title - but the reason I will read it again and again is the ...