(Hardcover)
"Whimsy and malice---yes---also mystery, a very female sensuality, and wit. An elegant and entertaining book."
--Ursula K. Le Guin
"The tales are beautifully written, elegant, passionate, funny, and moving. The entire collection is a delightful, magical bridge across cultures. I hope many readers find their way to it."
--Patricia A. McKillip
"Noted short story author Foster offers a dozen enchanting and sometimes chilling tales alive with elegantly sketched characters and sensibilities drawn from Asian folklore . . . Readers who long for a break from European medieval fantasy will be charmed and entertained by Foster's tales."
--Publishers Weekly
Enchantment, peril and romance pervade the shadowy Far East, from the elegant throne room of the emperor's palace to the humble teahouse of a peasant village. In these dozen stories of adventure and magic from the Orient, a maiden encounters an oni demon in the forest, a bride discovers her mother-in-law is a fox woman, a samurai must appease his sister's angry ghost, strange luck is found in a jade locket, and dark and light are two sides of harmony.
A striking debut collection from Eugie Foster.
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June 22, 2009: Eugie Foster's writing style contains a near-poetic flow that'll keep you reading from start to finish. And when it comes to characterization and plot and so forth, her stories never disappoint.
I Also Recommend: Distant Passages - Volume 1, Distant Passages - Volume 2, The Servant of the Manthycore, The Best Of Every Day Fiction 2008, Morevi.