Kazuo Ishiguro is acclaimed for novels like the Booker Prize-winning Remains of the Day and, most recently, Never Let Me Go. In this collection of extended short stories, he proves himself to be a similar master of this quite different form. The stories here are linked by their connection to music – and their exploration of the way music forges connections between people and marks moments or stages in their lives. They also explore ambition, its pursuit, and its effect on relationships.

The first story, ‘Crooner’, features a divorcing Hollywood crooner on a farewell trip to Venice with his soon-to-be ex – who is reintroduced in a later story, ‘Nocturnes’, not only giving us the fun of following her story, but allowing us a more intimate perspective than the narrator. Other stories explore a promising cellist’s unexpected encounter with a mysterious ‘virtuoso’ who tutors him daily in her hotel room; an adolescent friendship sutured by shared musical interests, awkwardly (amusingly) revisited many decades later; and an aspiring singer-songwriter who surprisingly bonds with a holidaying musician couple.