“A tiger stalking the house a young girl is holidaying in; middle-aged siblings who experience an enforced segregation in their home; a young man who cannot stop vomiting baby rabbits; a disaffected and drug-addled jazz musician via the eyes of his morose biographer-this is the rich tapestry from which Cortazar weaves his short stories, whether it be the lachrymose streets of Paris or the sultry neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires, the constant theme which runs through Cortazar’s novel is the limitless wonders of story-telling; at times playful and at others meditative, Cortazar’s range is varied but brilliant. The title story, on which Antonioni’s famous film is based, in one of the stand out stories in the collection. In it the narrator believes he witnesses-and prevents-an attempted murder via the lens of his camera. Subjectivity is a central theme in Cortazar’s novels; the reader is at the behest of the narrator, whose…