Aiken, Joan

The Monkey's Wedding and Other Stories

Small Beer Press:
Easthampton: 2011
First edition, Hardcover, New in dust jacket,
204 pp
Cover artwork by: Shelley Jackson

A collection. “Joan Aiken’s stories captivated readers for fifty years. They’re funny, smart, gentle, and occasionally very, very scary. The stories in The Monkey’s Wedding are collected here for the very first time and include seven never before published, as well as two published under the pseudonym Nicholas Dee. Here you’ll find the story of a village for sale . . . or is the village itself the story? There’s an English vicar who declares on his deathbed that he might have lived an entirely different life. After his death, a large, black, argumentative cat makes an appearance. . . . This hugely imaginative collection of incongruous, light, and unexpected stories features Shelley Jackson’s spooky and eye-catching cover painting inspired by the story ‘A Mermaid Too Many’ and includes introductions by Joan Aiken as well by her daughter, Lizza Aiken.” We’ll call this literary and slippery dark fantasy.   #46860