The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden

A Book of Wonders for Grown-Up Readers Every once in a great while a book comes along that reminds us of the magic spell that stories can cast over usto dazzle, entertain, and enlighten. Welcome to the Arabian Nights for our timea lush and fantastical epic guaranteed to spirit you away from the very first page.... Secreted away in a garden, a lonely girl spins stories to warm a curious prince: peculiar feats and unspeakable fates that loop through each other and back again to meet in the tapestry of her voice. Inked on her eyelids, each twisting, tattooed tale is a piece in the puzzle of the girl's own hidden history. And what tales she tells! Tales of shape-shifting witches and wild horsewomen, heron kings and beast princesses, snake gods, dog monks, and living starseach story more strange and fantastic than the one that came before. From ill-tempered "mermaid" to fastidious Beast, nothing is ever quite what it seems in these ever-shifting taleseven, and especially, their teller. Adorned with illustrations by the legendary Michael Kaluta, Valente's enchanting lyrical fantasy offers a breathtaking reinvention of the untold myths and dark fairy tales that shape our dreams. And just when you think you've come to the end, you realize the adventure has only begun.... From the Trade Paperback edition.

Catherynne Valente lives in Virginia with her husband. Her short fiction and poetry has appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Fantastic Metropolis, The Women's Arts Network, NYC Big City Lit, Jabberwocky, Fantasy Magazine, Electric Velocipede, Cabinet des Fees, and Star*Line, and has been featured in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror #18. Her previous novels include The Labyrinth and Yume no Hon: The Book of Dreams.