The Merry Spinster

'Ortberg has a voracious appetite for poison apples, and a genius for finding the places in fairyland where all the bodies are buried. The Merry Spinster will ruin your most-loved fables, in the best possible way' Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky 'A collection of stories delectable, formidable and nimble. As a fantasist and short story writer, Ortberg is without peer' Kelly Link"Ortberg has created a Frankenstein's monster of familiar narratives. . .[that swings] between Terry Pratchett's satirical jocularity and Angela Carter's sinister, shrewd storytelling, and the result is gorgeous, unsettling, splenic, cruel, and wickedly smart. I've never read anything quite like them, and I bet, Dear Reader, that you haven't either." Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties'Feminist fairy tales? Just what the doctor ordered . . . Ortberg conjures up the kinds of stories that will hopefully scary the bogeymen - with the emphasis on "men" - away' ELLE'Mischievous, unsettling, and often feminist, the stories in The Merry Spinster are a delightful, ingenious spin on beloved classics' Buzzfeed'Beautifully turned out. Ortberg heads straight for the big game . . . primordial, oppressive and funny' New York Magazine