A Shape-Shifting Short-Story Collection Defies Categorization

Kristen Roupenian reviews White Cat, Black Dog in The New Yorker:

A Shape-Shifting Short-Story Collection Defies Categorization
Kelly Link’s postmodern fairy tales make the case for enchantment

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The Book of Love

LA Times Book Prize Winner · NYT Notable Books · Vulture Best Books of the Year · NPR Books We Love · Time 10 Best Fiction · Publishers Weekly Top 10 Books of the Year.

In the long-awaited debut novel from bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle.

Limited Edition.

Playlist: Apple. Spotify.

"This is a masterpiece."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Dizzying.”—Leigh Bardugo, author of Ninth House

“Lush and visionary.”—Cassandra Clare, author of Sword Catcher

“Playful and harrowing.”—Holly Black, author of Book of Night

“Giant, glorious.”—Cory Doctorow, author of The Lost Cause

“Our greatest living fabulist.”—Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House

“Pure enchantment.”—Zen Cho, author of Black Water Sister

“Moving and deft.’”—Booklist (starred review)

Seven ingeniously reinvented fairy tales that play out with astonishing consequences in the modern world, from one of today's finest short story writers—MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellow Kelly Link, bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Get in Trouble.

Finding seeds of inspiration in the Brothers Grimm, seventeenth-century French lore, and Scottish ballads, Kelly Link spins classic fairy tales into utterly original stories of seekers—characters on the hunt for love, connection, revenge, or their own sense of purpose.

Get in Trouble

2016 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Fiction "A collection of short stories in which a writer with a fertile and often fabulist imagination explores inner lies and odd corners of reality." NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Book Riot • Buzzfeed • Kirkus Reviews • NPR • Slate • Time Magazine • Toronto Star • io9 • Flavorwire • San Francisco Chronicle • Electric Lit • Washington Post "In stories as haunting as anything the Grimm brothers could have come up with, Link gooses the mundane with meaning and enchantment borrowed from myth, urban legend and genre fiction. Here are superheroes who, like minor characters from reality shows, attend conferences at the same hotels as dentists and hold auditions for sidekicks. Here, a Ouija board can tell you as much about your future as your guidance counselor. In “Two Houses,” six astronauts wake from suspended animation to while away the time telling ghost stories, although they may be ghosts themselves. . . . In a Link story, someone is always trying to escape and someone is always vanishing without a trace. Lovers are forever being stolen away like changelings, and when someone tells you he’ll never leave you, you should be very afraid. Exquisite, cruelly wise and the opposite of reassuring, these stories linger like dreams and will leave readers looking over their shoulders for their own ghosts." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Framingham Dark Summer

Framingham Public Library Main Library 49 Lexington Street Framingham, MA 01702 Get Directions

“A new Book Festival is coming to Framingham this summer! The first annual Dark Summer Book Fest invades the Framingham […]

8 Aug

Stacey Yu (Kitten) in conversation with Kelly Link

Brookline Booksmith 279 Harvard Street Coolidge Corner Brookline, MA 02446-2908 Get Directions

7 p.m.

From the Brookline Booksmith website: Join us at Brookline Booksmith to celebrate the release of Kitten with author Stacey Yu, […]

10 Aug

Chautauqua Literary & Scientific Circle — White Cat, Black Dog: Stories by Kelly Link

Hall of Philosophy Chautauqua Institution P.O. Box 28 One Ames Ave. Chautauqua, N.Y. 14722 Get Directions

2 p.m.

From the Chautauqua website: Chautauqua Literary & Scientific Circle — White Cat, Black Dog: Stories by Kelly Link Finding seeds […]

28 Aug

2026 Deborah Pease Prize Celebration

The Century Association 7 West 43rd Street New York City Get Directions

6:30 p.m.

From A Public Space‘s website: It is a thrill to announce Kelly Link as the recipient of the 2026 Deborah Pease […]

28 Oct