Circus Bulgaria

the long version

"A boxer-turned-hitman faces an impossible mission to kill his brother; an old woman sets up a gang of teenage vigilantes after she is mugged; a retired geography teacher dreams of places he's neer been; a clown on the make talks an impoverished lion tamer into selling his lion to gangsters; and a faded beauty is courted by a suitor with suspiciously scaly hands... Drawing on the monsters and myths of Balkan folklore, the brutal reality of the Communist regime, and the dazzling magic of Deyan Enev's own imagination, this original and inventive collection of stories has a surreal, almost hypnotic quality."--Publisher description.