Kissing the Witch - by Emma Donoghue (Paperback)

About the Book

Acclaimed Irish author Emma Donoghue unravels 13 familiar stories and recasts them into a collection of remarkable fairy tales. Cinderella, Beauty, Rapunzel, and others are revealed in their own beguiling narratives, voices that shimmer with wisdom and truth. Their journeys take them into a strange and delightful landscape. Using the intricate patterns and oral rhythms of traditional fairy tales, Donoghue wraps age-old characters in a dazzling new skin.

Book Synopsis

Thirteen tales are unspun from the deeply familiar, and woven anew into a collection of fairy tales that wind back through time. Acclaimed Irish author Emma Donoghue reveals heroines young and old in unexpected alliances--sometimes treacherous, sometimes erotic, but always courageous. Told with luminous voices that shimmer with sensuality and truth, these age-old characters shed their antiquated cloaks to travel a seductive new landscape, radiantly transformed.Cinderella forsakes the handsome prince and runs off with the fairy godmother; Beauty discovers the Beast behind the mask is not so very different from the face she sees in the mirror; Snow White is awakened from slumber by the bittersweet fruit of an unnamed desire. Acclaimed writer Emma Donoghue spins new tales out of old in a magical web of thirteen interconnected stories about power and transformation and choosing one's own path in the world. In these fairy tales, women young and old tell their own stories of love and hate, honor and revenge, passion and deception. Using the intricate patterns and oral rhythms of traditional fairy tales, Emma Donoghue wraps age-old characters in a dazzling new skin.

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Review Quotes

"Stunning. "-- "The Boston Globe""Sophisticated, provocative, and bracing. "-- "The New York Times Book Review""A masterful, gorgeous, and wickedly well written book.-- Francesca Lia Block, author of "Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books""These tales are revolutionary."-- "The San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle"