Jim Crace’s internationally acclaimed Continent explores the tribes and communities, conflicts and superstitions, flora and fauna of a wholly spellbinding place: an imaginary seventh continent. In these seven tales Crace travels through strange and wonderful landscapes: “Talking Skull” takes the reader to a tiny agrarian village renowned for the sexually charged, mystical milk of its calves; “Electricity” introduces a remote region where a monumental ceiling fan changes an entire town’s attitude toward modernization. From acacia scrubland to a city bazaar jammed with vegetable stalls, tourists, and beggars, Crace’s invented world is as fabulous as it is eerily familiar.