'To compare Anita Desai's fiction with that of Chekhov or the short stories of Tolstoy is not extravagant; it is entirely warranted' Irish Times Anita Desai is amongst our greatest and most insightful writers. On the occasion of her 80th birthday, The Complete Stories gathers together the short story collections Diamond Dust and Games at Twilight and the novellas of The Artist of Disappearance, 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. 'All her stories are full of a confidence in human nature that is a rarity and a pleasure to encounter' Spectator 'Anita Desai is one of the most brilliant and subtle writers ever to have described the meeting of eastern and western culture' Alison Lurie