A Forest of Flowers

A Forest of Flowers is a collection of nineteen short stories which explore the absurdity of life for characters whose ambitions, modest as they are, are constantly thwarted by disgruntled spirits—in the form of idle and corrupt officials, adulterous spouses, envious relatives and grasping, untrustworthy entrepreneurs. Through a series of episodes, seemingly parochial and small scale, a nation is shown cracking up under the pressures of maladministration, corporate greed, sloth, ignorance and mercenary self-interest, while its people struggle against government neglect and abuse, racketeering, poverty, disease, superstition and ethnic mistrust.