Little Black Book of Stories (Vintage International) - Softcover

"A delight. . . . Byatt's stories are provoking and alarming, richly yet tautly rendered. . . .[She] has the sheer narrative skill to raise the hairs on the back of your neck and make your pulse race." -The New York Times Book Review

"Bewitching . . . immensely readable, fiercely intelligent, and studded with astonishing, refracting images. . . . A virtuoso performance by a master storyteller." -Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Supremely elegant. . . . Byatt peels back the surface of everyday life-and what she reveals may disturb your sleep." -Entertainment Weekly

"Striking . . . marvelous . . . impressive. . . . Byatt's Gothic touch transforms commonplace English settings and characters into unsettling zones of loss and fear." -The Boston Globe

"A storyteller who could keep a sultan on the edge of his throne for a thousand and one nights." -The New York Times Book Review

"Scrumptious . . . these are raw, tough, disruptive stories about memory, duty, madness, guilt, cruelty and loss, stories that grope and reel, that throb with secret longings, secret histories, artistic yearnings and the thrashes and groans of a stinking damnation in the underbrush."-Miami Herald

"Her finest collection yet. . . . Bleak then surprisingly funny, very dark indeed then full of inconceivable sources of light." -The Guardian

"Beautifully crafted. . . [Little Black Book of Stories] prods at the tender points where art, pain, and desire intersect." -The Financial Times

"A potent alchemy of magic, horror and sensual delight." -Elle

"Captivating . . . disturbing yet funny . . . an utterly compelling read." -Harper's Bazaar

"A delightful surprise. . . . A heady infusion of mythology and everyday life, with a strong undercurrent of horror. . . . Moving, thought-provoking, witty, and shocking all at once." -The Sunday Telegraph

"Haunting . . . Astonishing . . . Vivid . . . Moving . . . [Byatt] is an athlete of the imagination, breaking barriers without apparent effort." -The Nation

"A sophisticated and powerfully realized work. . . . A bravura performance of imaginative artistry." -The Times Literary Supplement

Blending elements of folk and fairy tales with the darker elements of everyday life, a haunting collection of short fiction by the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession includes the story of two middle-aged women confronting their childhood fears and memories and the tale of a man who encounters the ghost of his living wife. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.