Synopses & Reviews
Fairy tales for our times from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Hours
A
poisoned apple and a monkey's paw with the power to change fate; a girl
whose extraordinarily long hair causes catastrophe; a man with one
human arm and one swan's wing; and a house deep in the forest,
constructed of gumdrops and gingerbread, vanilla frosting and boiled
sugar. In A Wild Swan and Other Tales, the people and the
talismans of lands far, far away — the mythic figures of our childhoods
and the source of so much of our wonder — are transformed by Michael
Cunningham into stories of sublime revelation.
Here are the moments
that our fairy tales forgot or deliberately concealed: the years after a
spell is broken, the rapturous instant of a miracle unexpectedly
realized, or the fate of a prince only half cured of a curse. The Beast
stands ahead of you in line at the convenience store, buying smokes and a
Slim Jim, his devouring smile aimed at the cashier. A malformed little
man with a knack for minor acts of wizardry goes to disastrous lengths
to procure a child. A loutish and lazy Jack prefers living in his
mother's basement to getting a job, until the day he trades a cow for a
handful of magic beans.
Reimagined by one of the most gifted
storytellers of his generation, and exquisitely illustrated by Yuko
Shimizu, rarely have our bedtime stories been this dark, this perverse,
or this true.
Review
"The latest from Cunningham (The Snow Queen) offers elegant,
sardonic retellings of 10 iconic fairy tales . . . Cunningham’s tales
enlarge rather than reduce the haunting mystery of their originals.
Striking black-and-white images from illustrator Shimizu add a fitting
visual counterpoint to a collection at once dark and delightful." Publishers Weekly
Review
"The original tales are timeless for good reasons, and by approaching
them from a fresh and astute perspective with humor and compassion,
Cunningham revitalizes their profound resonance. Imaginatively
illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, this is a dazzling twenty-first-century
fairy-tale collection of creative verve and keen enchantment.
Cunningham’s high stature and the book’s irresistible premise will
attract lively media attention and reader curiosity." Donna Seaman, Booklist
Review
"[A Wild Swan is] positively delectable. I had no idea Mr.
Cunningham had it in him . . . He can't help but write movingly, even as
he's setting fire to our most cherished childhood texts. The book is
studded with unexpected moments of grace." Jennifer Senior, The New York Times
About the Author
Michael Cunningham is the author of seven novels, including
A Home at the End of the World,
Flesh and Blood,
The Hours (winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize),
Specimen Days, and
By Nightfall, as well as
Land's End:
A Walk in Provincetown. He lives in New York.
Yuko Shimizu is a Japanese illustrator based in New York, whose work has been featured in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. Her first self-titled monograph was released from Gestalten in 2011; her first children's book illustrations appeared in Barbed Wire Baseball, written by Marissa Moss. Shimizu teaches illustration at the School of Visual Arts.