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Original Essays | December 12, 2009

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Magic for Beginners

by Kelly Link

Magic for Beginners Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Magic for Beginners is the highly anticipated second collection by Kelly Link, the author of the cult favorite collection Stranger Things Happen. As the title suggests, this is an engaging, funny, and magical selection of stories about haunted convenience stores, husbands and wives, rabbits, zombies, weekly apocalyptic poker parties, witches, superheroes, marriages, and cannons, and includes several stories original to the collection. Stories from Magic for Beginners have previously been published in McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, Conjunctions, and The Dark.

Review:

"Kelly Link has an uncanny knack for casting spells over her readers, for luring them into the dark places — the attic, the underworld, a realm beneath a hill." The Boston Phoenix

Review:

"Move over, Russell Edson. Link is the purest, most distinctive surrealist in America, and she doesn't stop at prose-poem length." Booklist

Review:

"[E]ven when I didn't know what to make of her stories, I couldn't put them out of my mind. That sort of resonance, that lingering, haunting effect, is the product of real magic, and Kelly Link is no doubt a sorceress to be reckoned with." New York Times

Synopsis:

Magic for Beginners is Kelly Link’s eagerly anticipated and critically acclaimed follow-up to her beloved debut, Stranger Things Happen. “Cumulatively weirder and wiser” (The Believer), this new story collection riffs on zombies, marriage, witches, superheroes, haunted convenience stores, and weekly apocalyptic poker parties, among other things. 
 
Link’s work is truly unique. Time Out New York called her stories “cross-genre gems,” and her admirers in the literary community—from Peter Straub and Karen Joy Fowler to Alice Sebold and Michael Chabon—reflect the amazing range that makes her style so special. Call it kitchen sink magical realism: Fantastic and bizarre but funny and down to earth, there is something for everyone in Magic for Beginners.

 .

About the Author

Kelly Link is the editor of Trampoline, and co-editor of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet and The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror. Link lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
jirarudan22, February 21, 2009 (view all comments by jirarudan22)
I cried tears of joy and sadness with "The Faery Handbag. It is a loving mixture of sweet innocence and borderline naivete... I've been recommending Link to my students in my reading classes...More power!
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(3 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)
pebbeb, May 8, 2007 (view all comments by pebbeb)
A delightfully imaginative book. Her short stories have won numerous awards and from reading this book it is easy to see why. Kelly Link brings to mind Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges' fantasy-realism, yet hers is uniquely her own.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780156031875
Author:
Link, Kelly
Publisher:
Harvest Books
Illustrator:
Jackson, Shelley
Subject:
Short Stories (single author)
Subject:
Science Fiction - Short Stories
Subject:
Stories (single author)
Copyright:
Edition Description:
Harvest
Publication Date:
September 2006
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
YES
Pages:
297
Dimensions:
8.02x5.32x.73 in. .70 lbs.

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