Although full of philosophical puzzles and supernatural surprises, the stories which make up The Aleph also contain some of Borges's most fully realised human characters. With uncanny insight he takes us inside the minds of an unrepentant Nazi, an imprisoned Mayan priest, fanatical Christian theologians, a woman plotting vengeance on her father’s 'killer', and a man awaiting his assassin in a Buenos Aires guest house. This volume also contains the hauntingly brief vignettes about literary imagination and personal identity collected in The Maker, which Borges created as failing eyesight and public fame began to undermine his sense of self.