Body swap

Would you swap your crumbling frame for a younger model? Withered playwright Adam would, and he knows a man who can. In an East End warehouse, Adam's brain is transplanted into his corpse of choice - a 21-year-old who looks good in leather.

He sleeps his way around Europe, but when he tires of the hedonism will his cosy old life - and wife - be waiting?

The title story in this superb new collection may make unpersuasive sci-fi but it knows how to grip; Kureishi seems to be venturing out of the art house towards a wider audience.

The remaining stories also revolve round attempts to escape your own body: the best, Remember This Moment, Remember Us, describes a drunk couple recording a video message for their son to watch when he is 45.

It is charming, slushy even, several gas marks higher than Kureishi's icy back catalogue.