White Cat, Black Dog

"Seven reinvented fairy tales from one of today's finest short story writers – MacArthur 'Genius Grant' Fellow Kelly Link, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Get in Trouble.

Seven reinvented fairy tales that play out with astonishing consequences in the modern world.

Seven ingeniously reinvented fairy tales that play out with astonishing consequences in the modern world, from one of today's finest short story writers – MacArthur 'Genius Grant' Fellow Kelly Link, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Get in Trouble. Finding seeds of inspiration in the Brothers Grimm, seventeenth-century French lore, and Scottish ballads, Kelly Link spins classic fairy tales into utterly original stories of seekers – characters on the hunt for love, connection, revenge, or their own sense of purpose. In 'The White Cat's Divorce', an aging billionaire sends his three sons on a series of absurd goose chases to decide which will become his heir. In 'The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear', a professor with a delicate health condition becomes stranded for days in an airport hotel after a conference, desperate to get home to her wife and young daughter, and in acute danger of being late for an appointment that cannot be missed. In 'Skinder's Veil', a young man agrees to take over a remote house-sitting gig for a friend. But what should be a chance to focus on his long-avoided dissertation instead becomes a wildly unexpected journey, as the house seems to be a portal for otherworldly travelers – or perhaps a door into his own mysterious psyche. Twisting and winding in astonishing ways, expertly blending realism and the speculative, witty, empathetic, and never predictable – these stories remind us once again of why Kelly Link is incomparable in the art of short fiction. Reviews for Get in Trouble: 'Kelly Link is inimitable. Her tales are like nothing else, dark yet sparkling with her unique brand of fairy dust' Erin Morgenstern 'Link's stories are always a treat... Richly imagined, intellectually teasing: these are not so much small fictions as windows on to entire worlds. A brilliant, giddying read' Sarah Waters 'How does Kelly Link understand our pains and longings and memories and even our futures so well?... A national treasure!' Yiyun Li 'Funny, moving, tender, brave and dangerous' Neil Gaiman