“A job,” said the Lady. “Now you are getting the idea.”
Monkey went into the village he had made, but there were no jobs there to be had, and the people laughed at him when he asked them to employ him.
He went into a town nearby, and found himself a job, sitting at a desk and writing lists of names into a huge ledger, bigger than he was. He did not enjoy sitting at the desk, and writing names made his hands hurt, and whenever he sucked absentmindedly on his pen and thought of the forests the blue ink tasted foul and it left ink stains on his face and his fingers.
On the last day of the week, Monkey took his pay and walked from the town back to the village where he had last seen the Lady. His shoes were dusty and they hurt his feet.
He put one foot in front of the other on the path.
Monkey went to the cafe, but it was empty. He asked if anyone there had seen the Lady. The owner shrugged her shoulders, but said that, on reflection, she thought she had seen the Lady in the rose gardens on the edge of the village the previous day, and perhaps Monkey should look there . . .
“Man,” corrected Monkey. “Not Monkey.”
But his heart was not in it. Monkey went to the rose gardens, but he did not see the Lady.
He was slouching along the path that would have taken him back to the cafe when he noticed something on the dry earth. It was a gray hat with a dusty orange rose in the hatband.
Monkey walked towards the hat, and picked it up, and examined it to see if, perhaps, the Lady was underneath it. She was not. But Monkey noticed something else, a minute’s walk away. He hurried over to it. It was a gray shoe, with buttons up the side.
He walked on in the same direction and there, on the ground, was a second shoe, almost the twin of the first.
Monkey kept going, now. Soon, crumpled on the side of the road, he found a woman’s jacket, and then he found a blouse. He found a skirt, abandoned on the edge of the village.
Outside the village he found more gray clothes, thin and unlikely, like the shed skins of some scanty reptile, hanging now from branches. The sun would soon be setting, and the moon was already high in the eastern sky.
Something about the branches the clothes were hanging on felt familiar. He walked further into the grove of trees.
Something hit Monkey on the shoulder: it was a half-eaten plum. Monkey looked up.
She was far above him, naked and hairy-arsed, her face and her breasts stained and sticky with red juice, sitting and laughing in the plum tree.
“Come and look at the moon, my love,” she said, with delight. “Come and look at the moon.”
Honors List
This volume contains selections that have received or were nominated for various literary prizes, as follows.
“TROLL BRIDGE” (1993)
Nominee for the World Fantasy Award
“SNOW, GLASS, APPLES” (1994)
Winner of the Bram Stoker Award
Nominee for the Seiun Award (Japan)
NEVERWHERE (1996)
Nominee for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award
STARDUST (1999)
Winner of the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award
Winner of the ALA (American Library Association) Alex Award
Winner of the Geffen Award (Israel)
Finalist for the Locus Award
Nominee for the Deutsche Phantastik Preis (Germany)
AMERICAN GODS (2001)
Winner of the Hugo Award
Winner of the Locus Award
Winner of the Bram Stoker Award
Winner of the Geffen Award (Israel)
Nominee for the World Fantasy Award
Nominee for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award
Nominee for the British Fantasy Society/August Derleth Award
Nominee for the British Science Fiction Association Award
Nominee for the International Horror Guild Award
Nominee for the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire (France)
Nominee for the Deutsche Phantastik Preis (Germany)
Nominee for the Italia Award (Italy)
“OCTOBER IN THE CHAIR” (2002)
Winner of the Locus Award
Nominee for the World Fantasy Award
“CLOSING TIME” (2002)
Winner of the Locus Award
“A STUDY IN EMERALD” (2003)
Winner of the Hugo Award
Winner of the Locus Award
Winner of the Seiun Award (Japan)
“BITTER GROUNDS” (2003)
Finalist for the Locus Award
Nominee for the SLF Fountain Award
“THE PROBLEM OF SUSAN” (2004)
Nominee for the British Fantasy Award
“FORBIDDEN BRIDES OF THE FACELESS SLAVES IN THE SECRET HOUSE OF THE NIGHT OF DREAD DESIRE” (2004)
Winner of the Locus Award
“THE MONARCH OF THE GLEN” (2004)
Finalist for the Locus Award
ANANSI BOYS (2005)
Winner of the Locus Award
Winner of the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award
Winner of the British Fantasy Society/August Derleth Award
Winner of the Geffen Award (Israel)
Nominee for the ALA (American Library Association) Alex Award
“SUNBIRD” (2005)
Winner of the Locus Award
“HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES” (2006)
Winner of the Locus Award
Nominee for the Hugo Award
“THE TRUTH IS A CAVE IN THE BLACK MOUNTAINS” (2010)
Winner of the Locus Award
Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award
“THE THING ABOUT CASSANDRA” (2010)
Winner of the Locus Award
“THE CASE OF DEATH AND HONEY” (2011)
Winner of the Locus Award
Nominee for an Edgar Award
THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE (2013 novel)
Winner of the Locus Award
Winner of the British National Book Award for Book of the Year
Winner of the Deutsche Phantastik Preis (Germany)
Winner of the Geffen Award (Israel)
Nominee for the World Fantasy Award
Nominee for the Nebula Award
Nominee for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award
Nominee for the British Fantasy Award
“THE SLEEPER AND THE SPINDLE” (2013)
Winner of the Locus Award
“BLACK DOG” (2015)
Winner of the Locus Award
Most of the stories in this volume come from three previously published collections: Smoke and Mirrors, Fragile Things, and Trigger Warning. Those collections received or were nominated for various literary prizes, as follows.
SMOKE AND MIRRORS: SHORT FICTIONS AND ILLUSIONS (1998)
Winner of the Geffen Award (Israel)
Finalist for the Locus Award
Nominee for the Bram Stoker Award
Nominee for the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire (France)
FRAGILE THINGS: SHORT FICTIONS AND WONDERS (2006)
Winner of the Locus Award
Winner of the British Fantasy Award
Winner of the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire (France)
TRIGGER WARNING: SHORT FICTIONS AND DISTURBANCES (2015)
Winner of the Locus Award
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fantasy
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