The protagonists of Suzana Tratnik s short stories all share a sense of isolation on society s margins. Whether non-participants in the mainstream, rebels against it, or its occasional victims, they re well practiced at recognizing the herd instinct in action. From the six-year-old girl who discovers transgressive new games to play with her glamorous cousin from England; to a decidedly unusual schoolchild inventing a novel way of getting back at playground bullies; to young women who find their love interests drifting away, seduced by conventional notions of popularity and success; to a narrator who suddenly finds herself on no ordinary train trip through the heart of Slovenia these are characters and stories that deftly and sardonically underscore the phantom nature of normalcy itself and the risks of its tyranny for dissenters and conformists alike."