Introduces the characteristics of mermaids and mermen, their origins in folklore, and their portrayal in popular culture.

Nella and her brother Robert live a difficult life with their mother and father in a small town on the west coast of Sweden. Robert is bullied at school, and Nella has to resort to debt and petty crime to pay off his tormentors. When she turns to her friend Tommy for help, her suspicions are aroused by the mysterious comings and goings of his brothers at their dilapidated boat house. But when she uncovers the reason behind their enigmatic behavior, her life is opened to the realities of a mindboggling secret. The Merman is a dark and haunting novel about sibling love and betrayal—and about what happens when the mundane collides with the strange and beautiful.

*Includes "The Little Mermaid," now a major motion picture from Disney starring Halle Bailey and directed by Rob Marshall* Dive into centuries of mermaid lore with these captivating tales from around the world. A Penguin Classic Among the oldest and most popular mythical beings, mermaids and other merfolk have captured the imagination since long before Ariel sold her voice to a sea witch in the beloved Disney film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid." As far back as the eighth century B.C., sailors in Homer's Odyssey stuffed wax in their ears to resist the Sirens, who lured men to their watery deaths with song. More than two thousand years later, the gullible New York public lined up to witness a mummified "mermaid" specimen that the enterprising showman P. T. Barnum swore was real. The Penguin Book of Mermaids is a treasury of such tales about merfolk and water spirits from different cultures, ranging from Scottish selkies to Hindu water-serpents to Chilean sea fairies. A third of the selections are published here in English for the first time, and all are accompanied by commentary that explores their undercurrents, showing us how public perceptions of this popular mythical hybrid--at once a human and a fish--illuminate issues of gender, spirituality, ecology, and sexuality. For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Thirty beautifully depicted mermaids -- and a few mermen! -- represent myths and folktales from a wide variety of cultures. Brief captions introduce the stories behind the pictures. Contains mature content.

A BBW EARTH WOMAN / MERMAN ROMANCE. Twenty-year-old Erin Murphy isn’t the slim, blonde, model-type woman that men prefer. Once she’d dyed her dark hair a shocking shade of red and worn green contact lens in order to attract attention and it had ended disastrously. She has decided that she wouldn’t ever change herself again in order to find love, but is there any man who will love her as she is? Merman Jacob Spellman has always been attracted to fuller curves. None of the women on MerLand suit his taste. He’d wondered if he was destined to settle for less than his heart’s desire, until his older brother Adam finds happiness with an Earth woman and makes Jacob realize that he has to explore further afield. He sees Erin walking along Portobello Beach, senses her loneliness and longing to be loved, and decides that she will be his. All Erin needs is to believe that a handsome prince wants her just as she is. All Jacob needs to do is convince her that the Kingdom of MerLand is a better place than Earth.

Book #3 of the USA Today Bestselling KING TRILOGY. “You’re asking me to…love you?” asked Mia. He slowly scratched his thick black stubble. “I suppose I am.” What if you were asked to love a dangerous man who betrayed you at every turn, who terrified you even in your sleep? Could you do it to save the people you hold dear? Mia Turner is ready to give it all—her body, her heart, her soul—to the mysterious, ruthless billionaire who holds the cards to saving her family. But when this sinfully sexy man, simply known as King, demands something more, something horrifying, Mia will be forced to face the impossible truth about their lives. Sometimes the truth brings salvation. And sometimes the truth breaks you.

From New York Times bestseller Mimi Jean Pamfiloff comes Draco, a standalone dark romantic fantasy about a man fated to end the world and a woman fated to stop him. DRACO Approaching my thirtieth birthday, life seemed a dream: the perfect job, a girlfriend I adored, and endless possibilities ahead. Then I woke up. Trapped in a grimy cellar, my body frail, and my love vanished. Determined to break free, I succeed. But then the grim truth emerges: my entire reality is a fabrication, and I’ve been branded as the catalyst for the apocalypse. Why me? I refuse to accept my fate, but how do I stop it when every move I make only brings me closer to becoming death’s henchman? PIPER When a mysterious man showed up at my door, looking to rent a room, I knew I should turn him away. He wasn’t only good looking, which my live-in boyfriend wouldn’t appreciate, but there was something off about him. Still, I couldn’t say no. Then things take a dark turn when he claims he’s seen me in his dreams and wants me to explain why. He seems crazy. Or is he? Because strange stuff starts happening, including the unshakable feeling that I know this man from somewhere. I think…I think I’m meant to help him. But why does every instinct scream to run? And why can’t I resist getting closer?