The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios

A very young man dying of AIDS joins his friend in fashioning a story of a family, set against the march of the 20th century whose horrors and miracles it echoes. A Canadian university student visits Washington, D.C., and experiences the Vietnam War and its aftermath through an intense musical encounter. Variations of a warden's letter to the mother of a son he has just executed reveal how each life is contained in its end. A young man discovers an antique mirror-making machine in his grandmother's attic; his fascination with it juxtaposed with the long-winded reminiscenses it evokes from his grandmother. Four thought-provoking stories, four exquisitely drawn worlds, one distinctive voice: that of Yann Martel. Written before Life of Pi made him an international phenomenon, these tales are as inventive in form as they are in content. Each displays that startling mix of dazzle and depth Martel's readers savor. Includes The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, The Time I Heard the Private Donald J. Rankin String Concerto with One Discordant Violin, by the American Composer John Morton, Manners of Dying, and The Mirror Machine each in its entirety. Yann Martel was born in Spain in 1963 to diplomat parents. He grew up in Alaska, Canada, Costa Rica, France, and Mexico. He is also the author of the novel Self and the highly acclaimed fabulist fiction Life of Pi. When he stays put, he lives in Montreal.