Synopses & Reviews
The distinctive storytelling genius of Neil Gaiman has been acclaimed by writers as diverse as Norman Mailer and Stephen King. Now in this new collection of stories--several of which have never before appeared in print and more than half that have never been collected--that will dazzle the senses and haunt the imagination. Miraculous inventions and unforgettable characters inhabit these pages: an elderly widow who finds the Holy Grail in a second-hand store...a frightened little boy who bargains for his life with a troll living under a bridge by teh railroad tracks...a stray cat who battles nightly against a recurring evil that threatens his unsusupecting adoptive family. In these stories, Gaiman displays the power, wit, insight and outrageous originality that has made him one of the most unique literary artists of our day.
Synopsis
In Neil Gaiman's richly imagined fiction, anything is possible. And the proof is in the telling in this extraordinary collection of short stories. Discover within these pages miraculous inventions and curious characters: an elderly widow who finds the Holy Grail tucked beneath an old fur coat in a thrift store, a terrified boy who barters for his life with a mean-spirited troll living beneath a bridge by the railroad tracks, a young couple who receives a wedding gift that gradually reveals a chilling alternative history of their marriage. Smoke and Mirrors will dazzle your senses, touch your heart -- and haunt your dreams.
About the Author
Neil Gaiman wrote the award-winning graphic novel series
The Sandman, and with Terry Pratchett, the award-winning novel
Good Omens. His first book for children,
The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, illustrated by Dave McKean, hasn't yet won any awards, but was one of
Newsweek's Best Children's Books of 1997.
Angels &Visitations, a small press story collection, was nominated for a World Fantasy Award and won the International Horror Critics Guild Award for Best Collection, despite not having any horror in it. Well, hardly any.
Born in England, he now makes his home in America, in a big dark house of uncertain location where he grows exotic pumpkins and accumulates computers and cats. He is currently at work turning his first novel Neverwhere into a film for Jim Henson films.
Table of Contents
Reading the entrails: a rondel -- An introduction --Chivalry -- Nicholas was ... -- The price -- Troll bridge -- Don't ask Jack -- The goldfish pool and other stories -- The white road -- Queen of knives --Changes -- The daughter of owls -- Shoggoth's old peculiar -- Virus -- Looking for the girl -- Only the end of the world again -- Bay wolf -- We can get them for you wholesale -- One life, furnished in early Moorcock -- Cold colors -- The sweeper of dreams --Foreign parts -- Vampire sestina -- Mouse -- The sea change -- When we went to see the end of the world by Dawnie Morningside, age 11 1/4 -- Desert wind --Tastings -- Babycakes -- Murder mysteries -- Snow, glass, apples.