The strange, the sublime and the monstrous confront one another with astonishing consequences in this collection of twenty-two stories from an award-winning writer

Pilgrim and the angel -- Lamp at the turning -- Cartographer wasps and the anarchist bees -- Lion god and the two gates -- Music for the underworld -- Green glass: a love story -- Ilse, who saw clearly -- Doing adn undoing of Jacob E. Mwangi -- Wretched and the beautiful -- Urashima effect -- Braid of days and wake of nights -- Local stop on the floating train -- Witch of orion waste and the boy knight -- Eve of the planet of Ys -- Courtship displays of the American birder -- No-one girl and the flower of the farther shore -- Time invariance of snow -- Three variations on a theme of imperial attire -- Cat's tale -- Valley of wounded deer -- View from the top of teh stair -- Small monsters