This is one of Alexander McCall Smith's lesser known books, and with good reason. According to the book's introduction, this "story" is a retelling of the myth of Angus, the Celtic god of dreams. And while there certainly was a dream theme running through each of the chapters, some of which returned to the story of Angus, and some of which were stand-alone tales, overall it seemed shallow and quite unsatisfying (and left me, at times a little disoriented). McCall Smith employs a more lyrical and slightly whimsical style in this book, best demonstrated in my favourite chapter, 'Is there a place for pigs there?' It follows the story of Pig Twenty, a pig grown in a research centre purely for the purpose of harvesting his organs. He spends his days shut up in a concrete enclosure with only a small window in the ceiling, until one day, he is rescued by a keeper, who, finding out that the scientists plan to end Pig Twenty's life, decides to take him home. Unfortunately the keeper is found out, and has to take the pig back to the centre to face certain death. The keeper takes the pig back across the fields."Halfway across, they stopped to rest. Pig Twenty sat down and looked at the sky, as if puzzled, floored, by its sheer immensity. He might have thought, if he thought at all: is there a place for pigs there? Is that for pigs?"
Despite my lukewarm response to the rest of the book, I loved this story, and especially this passage... perhaps because I like pigs, the idea of Pig Twenty in silent contemplation of the sky, for the first time in his short life, is a lovely one.
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