I am an executioner

the long version

"An explosive fiction debut from an astonishing new voice: darkly funny, wildly original stories about the power of love, and the love of power--two urgent human desires that inevitably, and often calamitously, intertwine. The unforgettable opener, "The Infamous Bengal Ming," is narrated by a misunderstood tiger whose affection for his keeper goes horribly awry. In "Demons," a woman tries to celebrate Thanksgiving after the sudden death of her husband, even though his corpse is still sprawled on their living-room floor. In "The Strange Career of Dr. Raju Gopalarajan," an ex-CompUSA employee sets up a medical practice in a suburban strip mall armed only with textbooks from the local library and fake business cards. The heroes--and anti-heroes--of I Am An Executioner include a railroad manager in a turn-of-the-century Indian village, the newlywed executioner of the title, and an elephant writing her autobiography--the creations of a riotous, singular imagination that promises to dazzle the universe of American fiction"--