`While there was darkness in the original tales - blood, butchery and much else - Cunningham's collection brings emotional light and shade where there was none ... The comedy in these stories works brilliantly, but it does not uncut the tragedy of its lonely and quietly tormented outsiders ... This collection reminds us of the uncanny ability of the fairy ... Read moretale to allow its story and characters to bend and stretch to the time in which it is being reconceived, to be both archaic and topical ... Short, contemporary, disturbing, and alluring,: a transporting and enthralling read' FIVE STARS, Independent `With a light touch and bags of sardonic elegance, Cunningham impishly expands on these timeless narratives' Hephzibah Anderson, Observer Praise for THE SNOW QUEEN: 'Clean and sharp as an ice crystal; a brief but profound and poetic meditation on love, death and compassion from a master craftsman of language' Observer `Michael Cunningham's resonant new novel . . . is arguably [his] most original and emotionally piercing book to date' New York Times `The pursuit of transcendence in all kinds of forms - music, drugs, a McQueen minidress, and those things less tangible but no less powerfully felt - drives Michael Cunningham's best novel in more than a decade' Vogue Praise for THE HOURS: ` The Hours is a book which heightens the perception of the reader. Cunningham's craftsmanship is overwhelming.' Robert Farren, Independent on Sunday `An extremely moving, original and memorable novel.' Hermione Lee, TLS `Engrossing, imaginative and humane.' Richard Francis, Observer Show Less