Synopses & Reviews
Welcome to Newford. . . .Welcome to the music clubs, the waterfront, the alleyways where ancient myths and magic spill into the modern world. Come meet Jilly, painting wonders in the rough city streets; and Geordie, playing fiddle while he dreams of a ghost; and the Angel of Grasso Street gathering the fey and the wild and the poor and the lost. Gemmins live in abandoned cars and skells traverse the tunnels below, while mermaids swim in the grey harbor waters and fill the cold night with their song.
Like Mark Helprin's A Winter's Tale and John Crowley's Little, Big, Dreams Underfoot is a must-read book not only for fans of urban fantasy but for all who seek magic in everyday life.
Review
"In de Lint's capable hands, modern fantasy becomes something other than escapism. It becomes folk song, the stuff of urban myth." The Phoenix Gazette
Review
"Charles de Lint shows that, far from being escapism, contemporary fantasy can be the deep mythic literature of our time." The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
Review
"While not every story is perfect, and some don't live up to their promise, none fail outright, and a few stand out with flying colors. Because it's a collection, you can get a wide range of style, story, concept, character and theme, and that makes it worthwhile." Michael M. Jones, Green Man Review
About the Author
Born in Holland in 1951,
Charles de Lint grew up in Canada, with a few years off in Turkey, Lebanon, and Switzerland.
Although his first novel was 1984's The Riddle of the Wren, it was with Moonheart, published later that same year, that de Lint made his mark, and established him at the forefront of "urban fantasy," modern fantasy storytelling set on contemporary city streets. Moonheart was set in and around "Newford," an imaginary modern North American city, and many of de Lint's subsequent novels have been set in Newford as well, with a growing cast of characters who weave their way in and out of the stories. The Newford novels include Spirit Walk, Memory and Dream, Trader, Someplace To Be Flying, Forests of the Heart, The Onion Girl, and Spirits in the Wires. In addition, de Lint has published several collections of Newford short stories, including Moonlight and Vines, for which he won the World Fantasy Award. Among de Lint's many other novels are Mulengro, Jack the Giant-Killer, and The Little Country.
Married since 1980 to his fellow musician MaryAnn Harris, Charles de Lint lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Table of Contents
Introduction -- Uncle Dobbin's parrot fair -- The stone drum -- Timeskip -- Freewheeling -- That explains Poland -- Romano drom -- The sacred fire -- Winter was hard -- Pity the monsters -- Ghosts of wind and shadow -- The conjure man -- Small deaths -- The moon is drowning while I sleep -- In the house of my enemy -- But for the grace go I -- Bridges -- Our lady of the harbour -- Paperjack -- Tallulah.