A Feast of Sorrows: Stories is a new collection from Prime Books, containing twelve reprints and two brand new novellas. The lovely Theodora Goss has agreed to write the Introduction. And it will contain the first three stories from The Tallow-Wife collection which will be out in or about 2017. You can order online or ask your favourite indie bookseller to get it in for you.
Ze blurb:
A Feast of Sorrows — Angela Slatter’s first U.S. collection — features twelve of the World Fantasy and British Fantasy Award-winning Australian author’s finest, darkest fairy tales, and adds two new novellas to her marvelous cauldron of fiction. Stories peopled by women and girls — fearless, frightened, brave, bold, frail, and fantastical — who take the paths less traveled by, accept (and offer) poisoned apples, and embrace transformation in all its forms. Reminiscent of Angela Carter at her best, Slatter’s work is both timeless and fresh: fascinating new reflections from the enchanted mirrors of fairy tales and folklore.
Praise for A Feast of Sorrows: Stories
“Angela Slatter’s newest collection is an exemplary specimen of that endangered genre: fairy-tale retellings that read as something wholly original and fresh. Dark, bold, visceral, and sly, full of smart fierce girls and women saving each other; all in all reminiscent of nothing so much as Angela Carter’s best. One of the strongest thematic undercurrents here is that of transformation, as expected of most folklore worth its salt. These, however, are transformations couched in a metafictional nesting-doll of source material. Here are heroines who are aware not only of the well-worn paths they tread, not only of the dark woods of which they are on all sides beset, but also that some paths are meant to be strayed from, and that new paths are made in so doing. ” ~ Nicole Kornher-Stace, author of Archivist Wasp
“Angela Slatter’s stories pierce your skin and burrow deep, never to be forgotten.” ~ Marianne de Pierres, author of Peacemaker and the Sentients of Orion series
“An evocative, mysterious and memorable collection of stories told with wit, wisdom and humour; combined with a perfect pinch of dread and darkness.” ~ Garth Nix, author of The Old Kingdom and The Keys to the Kingdom series
“Angela Slatter’s new collection is full of heart-breaking fairy tales — not in the sanitized modern sense, but in the original style which used compelling stories to mask warnings. They combine timeless peril and beauty.” ~ Mary Robinette Kowal, author of The Glamourist Histories series
“Angela Slatter’s stories, like the fairy tales of old, are steeped in blood and darkness. To step into them is to immediately feel the presence of old energies, to hear the whisper of dreadful warnings. Building upon the foundations of the fairy tales, these stories are layered with character, narratively sophisticated, and galvanized by a beleaguered wisdom. With this wide release of stories previously only available in limited editions, the world at large is about to discover what some of us have known for years: Angela Slatter writes some of the darkest, most beautiful stories in the world today. ” ~ Nathan Ballingrud, author of North American Lake Monsters
Acknowledgement: The final editing of A Feast of Sorrows: Stories was made easier with the kind assistance of the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre (during my Established Writer-in-Residence gig there) and the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund (which helped with funding).