Wondrous beings and everyday monsters walk the pages of Orange Prize winner Valerie Martin's kaleidoscopic collection of stories

Martin's complex and wonderful stories, with their careful rendering and sober insights, offer their own kind of relief for the reader: this book is a long, cool drink of water New York Times An insightful look into the evolution of Martin's writing and her talent for depicting our darker natures. Varied, engaging, and often shocking. Kirkus A writer of immense talent and insight -- Yann Martel The writing - so prised and clean-limbed - is a marvel -- Toni Morrison Praise for Valerie Martin: 'A wonderful novel, vivid, revealing -- Carol Shields Wonderfully ingenious, compelling, convincing and exciting -- John Banville Fluently written, vividly imagined, moving and genuinely, chillingly spooky Daily Mail

VALERIE MARTIN is the author of ten novels, including The Ghost of the Mary Celeste, Mary Reilly, Italian Fever and Property, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction. She has also written three collections of short fiction and a biography of Saint Francis of Assisi, Salvation. She has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, as well as the Kafka Prize for Mary Reilly.