Terraferma — Jonathan Falla

From the death of a mammoth by a ski-lift to the death of a Red Brigade terrorist in Venice, by way of a farcical distribution of shoes in Central America and the whipping of an aid worker who has failed to deliver rain... This is the strange world of Jonathan Falla's remarkable stories.
The title work in this collection is set on the island of San Clemente outside Venice, now a luxury hotel but previously a huge psychiatric hospital. And who is it hiding in the attics? These tales also visit Scotland, Kenya, Nicaragua, India, Chile and Iran, exploring the weird paradoxes of the modern world in darkly witty scenes that are both entertaining and disturbing.
Jonathan Falla is the winner of a PEN prize for short fiction, a Fulbright Senior Fellowship, a major Creative Scotland Award and 'best film' awards for his screenplays. These stories show him at his deft and adventurous best.
- Of Falla's writing, the critics have said:
"Delightfully stinging, double-edged comic jab at your typical relief team." (City Limits)
"In what is at times a dark and harrowing tale, Falla manages to enchant with his characters." (The List)
"Strongly plotted and electric with personality." (Scottish Review of Books)
"The recurrent please for individual justice in an unjust world become pathetically funny... The strength of the writing and the subject carry all before them." (New York Times)