Valente’s “Bad Girl, the Deadman, and the Wheel of Fortune,” which rewrites one of the most disturbing of the traditional European fairy tales, “The Armless Maiden.” Valente’s protagonist is a canny but terrified child, reminding us that “happily ever after” comes only after experiences we would never wish on someone so young. Valentine dramatizes as part of her story the interaction between Schonworth and his unnamed female storyteller in a world where women’s choices are sharply abridged.Īlso excellent are Amal El-Mohtar’s “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” which explores the power of women’s friendships to rewrite-or at least expose-misogynist ideologies, and Catherynne M. “Why are you people so hungry for marvels?” Samatar’s narrator asks, while drawing our attention to the marvels and horrors we take for granted around us. Valentine’s and Samatar’s stories distinguish themselves in their multilayered reflections on the dynamics of telling tales. These include a couple of highly literary and unusual stories based on tales from two volumes that became available in English only in the past few years: Genevieve Valentine’s “Familiaris” is based on “The Wolves,” collected by Franz Xaver von Schonworth and published in The Turnip Princess, and Sofia Samatar’s “Mahliya and Mauhub and the White-Footed Gazelle” reflects on a story from the Arabic Tales of the Marvelous and News of the Strange.
Like many anthologies, it is something of a mixed bag, but the standout stories are well worth making time to read. Drawing on the mythical Old West, familiar European stories, and recently translated Middle Eastern tales, these stories provide a rich sample of what awaits us in the world of fairy tales.
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