Disappointingly boring. I don't think short stories are the author's strong point... every time something was about to start happening, the story immediately ended, so every story was dull and ended too abruptly. ("Once upon a time, some totally Greek people were in Greece. They did nothing for a while. Then something happened! They felt conflicted about the thing that had happened. The end.")

I read this because my mother and sister both said her novel The Island was great, so perhaps Victoria Hisplop is better at longer stories. I probably won't hurry to check it out, though.