Tender: Stories [Paperback]

World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Locus award finalist

Divided into Tender Bodies and Tender Landscapes, the stories collected here in this first collection of short fiction from a rising star travel from the commonplace to the edges of reality. Some of Samatars weird and compassionate fabulations spring from her life and literary studies; some spring from the world, some from the void.Tenderexplores the fragility of bodies, emotions, and landscapes, in settings that range from medieval Egypt to colonial Kenya to the stars, and the voices of those who question: children, students, servants, researchers, writers.

Tenderincludes two new stories, An Account of the Land of Witches and the Nommo Award shortlisted Fallow.

Here is the peaceable kingdom.

I once heard a beautiful story. Two people, a brother and sister, worked at the Castle until they were very old. Then the sister fell ill and couldnt work anymore. In her illness her eyes became brighter and brighter, and her face thinner, until she looked like a little old child. Eventually she was so small the brother could carry her on his back. He carried her up to the Castle for medical treatment. Theres a long part of the story in which the brother staggers through the Castle, getting confused, going into the wrong rooms, waiting for hours to get clearance. All the time he has his sister on his back, and also something else: her pain, which has been growing until it nearly fills her whole body. Pain is the heaviest thing, said Miss Snowfall, who was telling the story. A faint clicking came from the back of the room, where some boys were fiddling with chalk. At the end of the story, the two old people were so worn out and bewildered they returned to the village without even seeing a doctor. The old woman died in her bed, underneath her own quillS(