Written with the author's characteristic blend of humour and pathos, Cabbages and Kings (1904) is less a novel than a series of cleverly interwoven short-stories. In Coralio - a sultry coastal town in the volatile banana republic of Anchuria - a disparate cast of vagabonds, hucksters, mercenaries, merchants and consuls is busy plotting, scamming, drinking, loving or trying to forget the past. Each has his own tale to tell and his own particular reason for washing up on these tropical shores - and all have a part to play as this masterpiece of twisting narrative begins to unfold....