by Jo Walton
First published 2018
A collection of interconnected tales where magic hides in plain sight. An old coin becomes witness to the secret lives of criminals and romantics across generations. A mystical mirror observes everything but remains powerless to change what it sees. Siblings turn to theft, armed only with terrible verse and assistance from the Queen of Cats. A cloned messiah must unravel a murder driven by religious extremism. Each story peels back the veneer of ordinary life to expose the supernatural forces operating just below the surface. Walton crafts worlds where the mundane and the miraculous collide, revealing how extraordinary events shape seemingly normal people. The tales explore the weight of witnessing, the price of intervention, and the strange partnerships that form when desperation meets opportunity.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, fantasy, magical-realism
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, witness-to-the-extraordinary
Period: 20th-Century, 21st-Century
272 pages · Paperback · Tachyon Publications