"The millions of readers of Amor Towles are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories set in New York City and a novella in Los Angeles. The New York stories, most of which are set around the turn of the millennium, take up everything from the death-defying acrobatics of the male ego, to the fateful consequences of brief encounters, and the delicate mechanics of comprise which operate at the heart of modern marriages. In...

"Centuries ago, the heretic sorcerer Ruven raised a deadly briar around Runakhia's palace, casting the royal family into an enchanted sleep—and silencing the kingdom's gods. Born with a miraculous gift, Lia's destiny is to kill Ruven and wake the royals. But when she succeeds, she finds her duty is not yet complete, for now she must marry into the royal family and forge a pact with a god—or die. To make matters even worse, Ruven's spirit...

Set in an unnamed valley-surrounded by other valleys, each twenty years apart in time-a masterful, moving literary speculative novel in which the Conseil determines if a bereaved resident can cross the border to the past or the future on a "mourning tour." One sixteen-year-old Conseil candidate spots two visitors from the future, but is shocked when she recognizes them as the parents of the boy she loves.