I wonder if anyone knows who this writer is an what this book is called. I read it ages ago and just cant remember the title. What I can remember is this -
The writer was Canandian/Scots
It was a collection quite weird of short stories
The introduction spoke of a man in a cell who was in darkness all day except for a couple of minutes when they switched the lights on to check the locks. During this two minutes he would read as much and as quickly as possible from a book he had. The rest of the time he just waited for the lights and thought of his book.
One story was about a mining community in which all the men only had one leg.
The lift cable broke and the lift hurtled down the shaft. The men inside knew that when it hit the bottom, the impact would shatter their legs, so they all stood on one leg at the last moment. The leg bones were reduced to powder, were amputated, but they all survived.
I think this book was published in the 80’s