Robert Walser's short prose finds its subjects in the apparently inconsequential.

Something simple. A walk through the countryside, an awkward social encounter, a passing observation, a small embarrassment; all become words full of humour, melancholy and flights of imagination, twists into the absurd.

This collection brings together short stories and prose miniatures from across Walser's career, including The Tip, Spring, A Little Ramble and The Little Sheep. His narrators wander, digress, contradict themselves and become preoccupied with details that more purposeful observers might overlook. Beneath their cheerful politeness and occasional self-mockery lies a persistent interest in loneliness, social hierarchy, artistic identity and the difficulty of belonging.

His attention to the marginal and overlooked, and his willingness to let a story end almost before it begins, make these miniature works especially distinctive. An excellent introduction to one of the twentieth century's most idiosyncratic literary voices.

Edition / Condition: NYRB Classics, 2016 paperback edition. Translated by Tom Whalen, Nicole Köngeter and Annette Wiesner, with an afterword by Tom Whalen. Very good condition, with minimal signs of handling.