Fabulous: Stories

From the author of the “sophisticated and erudite” Peculiar Ground (Boston Globe) comes a collection of classic, witty fables, elegantly updated for our modern times.

It's in the nature of myth to be infinitely adaptable.

Each of these startlingly original stories is set in modern Britain. Their characters include a people-trafficking gang-master and a prostitute, a migrant worker and a cocksure estate agent, an elderly musician doubly befuddled by dementia and the death of his wife, a pest-controller suspected of paedophilia and a librarian so well-behaved that her parents wonder anxiously whether she’ll ever find love.

They’re ordinary people, preoccupied, as we all are now, by the deficiencies of the health service, by criminal gangs and homelessness, by the pitfalls of dating in the age of #metoo. All of their stories, though, are inspired by ones drawn from Graeco-Roman myth, from the Bible or from folk-lore.

The ancients invented myths to express what they didn’t understand. These witty fables, elegantly written and full of sharp-eyed observation of modern life, are also visionary explorations of potent mysteries and strange passions, charged with the hallucinatory beauty and horror of their originals.

“Sophisticated and erudite…. Ms. Hughes-Hallett is a natural heir to A.S. Byatt, delivering a densely patterned novel that shimmers with human interest as it probes our cultural story.” - Wall Street Journal on Peculiar Ground

“Rather more than your usual English country house novel.  Think of it as a saga of a place depicted in gorgeous prose…. With its clever juxtaposition of past and present and its mediation of time and change, Peculiar Ground is reminiscent of Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia.” - Minneapolis Star Tribune on Peculiar Ground

“Dazzling.... A brilliant, ambitious mixture of actual history and creative invention.” - Boston Globe on Peculiar Ground

“Full of drama, vivid characters, wit, gorgeous writing and fascinating botanical, religious and social detail.... Peculiar Ground, with its witches and aristocrats, its highly educated men, women and children and its gradations of every conceivable social type between upstairs and downstairs, is a grand spectacle.” - New York Times Book Review on Peculiar Ground

“Thoroughly engaging…. Hughes-Hallett is a master storyteller. Her prose is a treasure—evocative, rich, engaging.”
 - Library Journal (starred review) on Peculiar Ground

“Clever…Hallett forges novel situations for her quirky characters, and each retelling works well as a modern story in its own right.” - Publishers Weekly