1858 âe"Warring mages open up a vast inland sea that splits the United States in two. With the floodwaters come creatures from a long distant past. What seems like the End Times forges a new era of heroes and heroines who challenge tradition, law, and even death as they transform the old west into a new world.In the heart of dinosaur country a laconic trapper and a veteran mage risk treason to undertake a secret mission.A brilliant magician and her beautiful assistant light up stages with the latest automaton, but the secrets both of them are hiding test their trust in each other and pit them against one of the most powerful men in the world. At the wild edge of the Inland Sea, amidst crocodiles and triceratops, an impoverished young man and a Pinkerton Detective must join forces to outmaneuver a corrupt judge and his gunmen.

“Her knowledge of the Bible is evident and her creativity shines through as she weaves nine thoughtful and layered accounts of distant, complicated times.” —Publisher's Weekly “Reminiscent of Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent. . . . These beautifully written stories feel like meeting Eve, Lot’s wife, and many other compelling characters for the first time.” —LAUREL CORONA, author of The Mapmaker’s Daughter and The Four Seasons: A Novel of Vivaldi’s Venice “Stunning.” —MOLLY ANTOPOL, author of The UnAmericans “Gorgeous and captivating.” —DARA HORN, author of A Guide for the Perplexed and The World to Come “Marvelous.” —MICHELLE HUNEVEN, author of Off Course and Blame “What struck me most about these stories is their clear, assured confidence—as if Michal Lemberger had pulled apart some of the lines in the old story, spied a new story tucked in there way off in a corner, shimmied in a fishhook and pulled it out.” —AIMEE BENDER, author of The Color Master and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake “Lemberger liberates the voices that are trapped beneath the [biblical] text . . . with artistry and erudition.” —RABBI DAVID WOLPE, Rabbi of Sinai Temple, Los Angeles and author of Why Faith Matters Eve considers motherhood. Miriam tends Moses. Lot’s wife looks back. Vividly reimagined with startling contemporary clarity, Michal Lemberger’s debut collection of short stories gives voice to silent, oft-marginalized biblical women: their ambitions, their love for their children, their values, their tremendous struggles and challenges. Informed by Lemberger’s deep knowledge of the Bible, each of these nine stories story recasts a biblical saga from the perspective of a pivotal woman. Michal Lemberger’s nonfiction and journalism have appeared in Slate, Salon, Tablet, and other publications, and her poetry has been published in a number of print and online journals. A story from After Abel, her first collection of fiction, was featured in Lilith Magazine. Lemberger holds an MA and PhD in English from UCLA and a BA in English and religion from Barnard College. She has taught the Hebrew Bible as Literature at UCLA and the American Jewish University. She was born and raised in New York and now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters.

Stories on the people of the Southwest. Silviana strides to her chicken coop, triggering a "feathered pandemonium" as chickens smell death in the air, Mamacita embroiders, "wondering what in the world it feels like to be kissed," and people who buy tortillas at the market "might as well move to Los Angeles, for they have already lost their souls."

"The one novella and four stories in The Old Child go beyond the limits of the expected, the real. Somber, nostalgic and often mystical, these marvelous fictions provide glimpses into the minds of outcasts and eccentrics. The parable-like novella The Old Child describes a girl's mind seemingly blank: picked up off the street with no discoverable past, she is brought to a children's home where she finds she can "succeed by her silence." In another story, "Siberia," the heroine smuggled out of a Russian camp vigorously re-establishes herself in her old home. In "Hale and Hallowed," a woman pays a surprise nighttime visit to her friend with whom she shared a hospital room when their two sons were born."--BOOK JACKET.

Twelve stories by science fiction master Stanisław Lem, nine of them never before published in English. Of these twelve short stories by science fiction master Stanisław Lem, only three have previously appeared in English, making this the first "new" book of fiction by Lem since the late 1980s. The stories display the full range of Lem's intense curiosity about scientific ideas as well as his sardonic approach to human nature, presenting as multifarious a collection of mad scientists as any reader could wish for. Many of these stories feature artificial intelligences or artificial life forms, long a Lem preoccupation; some feature quite insane theories of cosmology or evolution. All are thought provoking and scathingly funny. Written from 1956 to 1993, the stories are arranged in chronological order. In the title story, "The Truth," a scientist in an insane asylum theorizes that the sun is alive; "The Journal" appears to be an account by an omnipotent being describing the creation of infinite universes--until, in a classic Lem twist, it turns out to be no such thing; in "An Enigma," beings debate whether offspring can be created without advanced degrees and design templates. Other stories feature a computer that can predict the future by 137 seconds, matter-destroying spores, a hunt in which the prey is a robot, and an electronic brain eager to go on the lam. These stories are peak Lem, exploring ideas and themes that resonate throughout his writing.

Fourteen tales of domestic life in the south during the thirties and forties.