Originally written and pressed as Christmas cards for friends and family, An Unexpected Gift: Three Christmas Stories collects and presents three funny, tender, modern tales from Marcel Theroux. A hard-pressed barber gets an angelic last-minute customer, a struggling retailer finds un-looked for freedom, and a grieving anthropologist procures a new piece for her collection. These stories are beautifully crafted and underpinned with a wit, charm and light touch that provide perfect seasonal reading.



MARCEL THEROUX is the award-winning author of six novels. He was born in Kampala, Uganda, in 1968. He grew up in England, studied English Literature at Cambridge University and International Relations at Yale, where he specialized in Soviet and East European Studies. In addition to his books, Theroux has written a number of original screenplays and written and presented more than a dozen documentaries on subjects ranging from climate change to the Japanese aesthetic principle of wabi-sabi. He is a regular presenter of Unreported World on Channel 4.