Magic is back. Peter S. Beagle returns with an inspired collection of new fantasy that showcases his incomparable mastery and range. In these tales--with settings as different as an impossible reconstruction of the Berlin Wall and the kitchen of Mrs. Eunice Giant (72 Fairweather Lane, East-of-the-Bean, Sussex Overhead)--warriors, monsters, and utterly ordinary people struggle with possession and forgiveness, life and love, hate and death...and the choices that come after everything else has been stripped away by Fate. Inside these pages: --The daughter of the Shark God leaves her Pacific island home, determined to find her mysterious father and hold him accountable for the curse of her own existence. --A dilapidated dragon, a frustrated cop, and an unapologetic author square off over a dangerously abandoned narrative. --An enchantress-to-be sings of power, desire, and the ultimate betrayal of her heart. --In a nothing diner, in a nowhere town, a woman lost in grief learns how to fool Death with one artful shuffle of the deck.
Featuring a brand-new Schmendrick tale set before The Last Unicorn, plus twelve other wonderful stories, Sleight of Hand is suffused with a luminous misdirection that moves the soul as much as it fools the eye. Always ready to delight his readers, Beagle proves yet again that he is a master magician.