This paperback contains 22 short stories - the shortest two pages long, the longest five pages long - by British and American authors of the 20th century. Not just short stories, but very short stories. Some of these concentrated prose pieces are simply charming or amusing. However, many are, not without difficulty, unsettling or painful. Almost all are ironic and ambiguous. And some evoke a - smaller or larger - world blooming in the reader's mind. Or even collapsing. Those who want to recognize the recently passed century (and themselves within it) will benefit from reading this paperback: they will know 22 times more than before. Texts for connoisseurs.