Sex and death are two of the most powerful, exhilarating and terrifying forces that define and shape the human experience.In this provocative and haunting collection of short stories edited by two masters of the form, some of today's most compelling writers from around the globe - including Kevin Barry, Yiyun Li, Ben Marcus, Jon McGregor, Taiye Selasi and Ali Smith - explore these challenging themes with honesty, empathy and psychological acuity, in stories that are utterly dazzling.

Sarah Hall was born in Cumbria in 1974. She is the prize-winning author of five novels - Haweswater, The Electric Michelangelo, The Carhullan Army, How to Paint a Dead Man and The Wolf Border - as well as The Beautiful Indifference, a collection of short stories. The first story in the collection,'Butchers Perfume', was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, a prize she won in 2013 with'Mrs Fox'.Peter Hobbs grew up in Cornwall and Yorkshire, and lives in London. His debut novel, The Short Day Dying, was published by Faber in 2005. It was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and won a Betty Trask Prize. It was also shortlisted for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. A collection of stories, I Could Ride All Day In My Cool Blue Train, was published in 2006.