In this elegant set of stories, three modern women are touched in different ways by the paintings of Henri Matisse.

In "Medusa's Ankles", a distinguished translator visits a hair salon hoping to regain a hint of her youthful looks. Hung on the wall before her is one of Matisse's iconic portraits.

In "Art Works", the three inhabitants of one household - a generous wife, her petulant husband, and their regal housekeeper - make very different artists.

And in "The Chinese Lobster", a self-tortured, anorexic art student confronts the smug opulence of Matisse's nudes while pondering suicide.