This collection of marvelously off-kilter short stories – the American debut of acclaimed Japanese writer Yasutaka Tsutsui – portrays the consequences of a world where the fantastic and the mundane collide and throw the lives of ordinary men and women into disarray.In 'The Dabba Dabba Tree' Tsutsui describes the hilarious side effects of a small conical tree that, when placed at the foot of one's bed, creates erotic dreams that metamorphose into communal farce. In 'Commuter Army' -a sly commentary on the ludicrousness of war-a weapons supplier whose rifles cease functioning after just one shot becomes an unwilling conscript in a war zone. 'The World is Tilting' imagines a floating city that slowly begins to sink on one side, causing its citizens to reorient their daily lives to...