<i>The Complete Stories</i> gathers together Anita Desai''s short story collections <i>Diamond Dust</i> and <i>Games at Twilight </i>and the novellas of <i>The Artist of Disappearance</i>, with a new preface from the author. From the icy suburbs of Canada to the overcrowded B&Bs of Cornwall, via the hill towns and cities of India, Anita Desai observes human behaviour unflinchingly but not unkindly, recognising our ordinariness and our strangeness, and capturing both with quiet precision.