"Kociejowski draws on all the aspects of his life in these engaging, idiosyncratic personal essays ... [that] proffer the reader equal measures of autobiography, insight and quirky charm."--Michael Dirda, The Washington Post In the game of bocce, no matter how intensely you study the world's surface, there is always a chance an unseen pebble will knock your ball in an unexpected direction. In these essays, poet, antiquarian bookseller, and celebrated travel writer Marius Kociejowski chronicles serendipitous encounters with authors, manuscripts, and eccentrics, in which "the curious workings of fate" and "art's unbidden swerve" intervene to shift the course of fortune. Carried by keen wit, aphoristic prose, and a rich sense of characterization, and featuring chance meetings and comic misadventures with such figures as Bruce Chatwin, Zbigniew Herbert, and Javier MarΓas, The Pebble Chance is a sumptuous offering of belles lettres exploring the incandescent moments when skill and providence collide. -- Provided by publisher.;A factotum in the book trade -- A copper gazelle -- Girls, handsome dogs, & stuffed olives -- "Monsieur, le chat est mort!" -- "Do not expect applause": W.S. Graham in performance -- My father's silver horse -- The testament of Charlotte B. -- A meeting with Pan Cogito -- Richard Stanyhurst, Dubliner -- Synchronicity & tobacco smoke -- The Book of Ordon -- A voyage through Ormsby's Araby -- The pebble chance -- The Poetical Remains of Madge Herron -- C.M.: A portrait -- A singer from Ferghana -- Lunar.