Christmas present from the in-laws.

A cleverly connected collection of short stories. Each section stands on it's own as a very readable short story, but the key to this book is the way such different characters' lives manage to impact on one another in utterly unexpected ways. The stories are set in various locations all over the world, but a character from one story has no need to interact directly with a character from another in order to have a profound impact on their life. I guess it's a book about chaos, and how seemingly far off, and unimportant events, can actually effect us more directly than we might imagine. Brilliantly imagined and engagingly written, it's well worth a look.