“Though the late fantastical British writer is best known for her children’s literature, this short story collection, edited by Aiken’s daughter Lizza and the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist Kelly Link, compiles tales of the surreal and supernatural suited for an adult audience. Joel Cunningham, B&N, The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Collections and Anthologies of 2016 Her stories have a timeless feel, whether screwball romantic comedies about ghosts, or tales of confounded faerie royalty.” “Renowned fabulist and children’s author Joan Aiken had a long and prolific career, and it’s easy to see why her career endured across decades. Among the stories collected in this omnibus, are some of the very first Joan Aiken stories that I ever fell in love with, starting with the title story “The People in the Castle,” which is a variation on the classic tales of fairy wives.” “The particular joys of a Joan Aiken story have always been her capacity for this kind of brisk invention her ear for dialect her characters and their idiosyncrasies. Here are tales of suspense and the supernatural that will chill, amuse, and exhilarate. Here is the whisper in the night, the creak upstairs, that half-remembered ghost story that won’t let you sleep, the sound that raises gooseflesh, the wish you’d checked the lock on the door before it got really, really dark.

Read the introduction and title story on Tin House. This week on #LeVarBurtonReads we travel to England for a fanciful Victorian Gothic tale by Joan Aiken, FURRY NIGHT, from her collection THE PEOPLE IN THE CASTLE #bydhttmwfi

The People in the Castle by Joan Aiken