McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1400078741 ISBN 13: 9781400078745

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2004

Synopsis

Michael Chabon is back with a brand-new collection that reinvigorates the stay-up-all-night, edge-of-the seat, fingernail-biting, page-turning tradition of literary short stories, featuring Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, Peter Straub, David Mitchell, Jonathan Lethem, Heidi Julavits, Roddy Doyle, and more!

Margaret Atwood- Lusus Naturae

David Mitchell- What You Do Not Know You Want

Jonathan Lethem- Vivian Relf

Ayelet Waldman - Minnow

Steve Erickson- Zeroville

Stephen King- Lisey and the Madman

Jason Roberts - 7C

Heidi Julavits- The Miniaturist

Roddy Doyle - The Child

Daniel Handler - Delmonico

Charles D’Ambrosio - The Scheme of Things

Poppy Z. Brite - The Devil of Delery Street

China Mieville- Reports of Certain Events in London

Joyce Carol Oates - The Fabled Light-house at Vi–a del Mar

Peter Straub - Mr. Aickman’s Air Rifle

About this title

About the Author

Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, among many others. He lives in Berkeley, California with his wife, the novelist Ayelet Waldman, and their children.

From Publishers Weekly

With this varied collection of enchanting though not always astonishing tales, Chabon (who also edited McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales) aims for an anthology full of "genre bending and stylistic play." There's quite a lineup of writers taking a stab at "genre" fiction here: many expected (Margaret Atwood, Stephen King), but a few surprises as well, and a newcomer or two. Atwood offers a fantastical tale of a human "lusus naturae" (freak of nature) who suffers from a nameless disease that results in yellow eyes, red fingernails and fangs—how does such a creature fit into a family? Jonathan Lethem's charming "Vivian Relf," which concerns two strangers who seem familiar to each other and who continue to cross each others' paths, is a kind of love story, but there are also tales creepy (Jason Roberts's "7C") and strange (China Miéville's "Reports of Certain Events in London"). Stephen King's "Lisey and the Madman" is full of engaging detail and feeling. While a couple of stories fail to reach the high-water mark, this collection will offer readers plenty of pleasure and perhaps even a sense of doing good (an endnote says that "this book benefits 826 Valencia," the San Francisco writing lab founded by Dave Eggers and Co.).
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About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1400078741
• ISBN 13: 9781400078745
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328
• Editor: Michael Chabon
• Illustrator: Mike Mignola