The Menagerie is a book based on different stories. These stories cover many periods of our history, from a seventeenth century violin maker in Italy to a petty thief out of his league in modern times. They are human stories about people caught at critical moments in their lives; a Swedish estate agent at the turn of the century, a young wife running away with a German prisoner at the end of the war, a farmer having an affair with his help in the fifties, a Bosnian Croat soldier on Millenium Eve, a young girl from a high rise staying at the sea side while her mother has treatment for cancer, a postman over run by abandoned animals to a hospital porter adopting a corpse, each has a story to tell. The secret of this book is the description of people, gestures, actions, things. Their being is so defined it immerses the reader in the stories, letting him personify the characters himself. They give a vivid picture of human life.