WE NEVER TALK ABOUT MY BROTHER
Peter S. Beagle

Unsigned, $15
Signed by the author, $25
Personalized, $30

Click here to order We Never Talk About My Brother.

Cover design and art by Ann Monn.
Tachyon Publications 2009 trade paperback edition. 219 pages.

Peter marks 50 years as a working author by releasing his latest (and best-yet) story collection, featuring nine tales written since 2006, a wonderful poem cycle inspired by the famous Unicorn Tapestries, and a special introduction by Charles de Lint. Two of the stories ("By Moonlight" and "The Stickball Witch") appear in print here for the first time, while six of the other seven made Locus Magazine's annual Recommended Reading list. Readers who only know Peter's classic novels will be astonished at his mastery of fantasy at any length, as well as by the range and depth of the stories offered here.

Contents:

          Introduction by Charles de Lint

          Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel
          We Never Talk About My Brother
          The Tale of Junko and Sayuri
          King Pelles the Sure
          The Last and Only, or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French
          Spook
          The Stickball Witch
          By Moonlight
          The Unicorn Tapestries
          Chandail

FROM THE BACK COVER

"At his best, Peter S. Beagle outshines the mon, the sun, the stars, the entire galaxy."

THE NINE EXTRAORDINARY STORIES in Peter S. Beagle's new fantasy collection are profound explorations of love, death, transformation, and the choices that define just who and what we are. Ranging from an artist's loft in 1950s New York to the lacquered hallways of a feudal Japanese castle, each is a singular world of the imagination, told with wit and timeless wisdom.

— A modern-day Angel of Death moonlights as an anchorman on the network news.

— King Pelles the Sure, shortsighted ruler of a gentle realm, betrays his kingdom by dreaming of a manageable war.

— An American librarian discovers — much to his surprise, and to his wife's sadness — that he has become the last living Frenchman.

— Bitter rivals in a supernatural battle over love and real estate forego pistols at dawn in favor of dramatic recitations of dreadful poetry.

Combining new work written specifically for this volume with recently-released classics, as well as the redisovered poem cycle "The Unicorn Tapestries," We Never Talk About My Brother is a haunting, wholly-satisfying collection of fiction from one of America's finest authors.

FROM PUBLISHERS WEEKLY'S STARRED REVIEW

Hugo and Nebula Award–winner Beagle showcases his narrative breadth in this eclectic new collection with nine powerful fantasy tales and a short set of poems based on the famous Unicorn Tapestries. In the title story, one benevolent sibling must somehow stop another from becoming the Angel of Death. “The Last and Only, or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French” explores the significance of identity as a mild-mannered American librarian irrevocably transforms into the last true Frenchman, while the profoundly moving “King Pelles the Sure” denounces the insanity of war. The most memorable selection is “The Stickball Witch,” in which a group of Bronx boys playing stickball come face to face with the suspected witch of their neighborhood. Impressively diverse themes, styles and subject matter make this collection addictive.

FROM BOOKLIST'S STARRED REVIEW

The phrase literary fantasy usually voices disdain, as if bona fide fantasy writers avoid all niceties of style and language. Such scornful usage runs aground on the work of Beagle, who knows better than any other contemporary fantasist how to tell a tale in the appropriate tone. So the memory-of-childhood piece, "Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel" is as wistful as the adult calling it up from the past yet as matter-of-fact as the unsophisticated 10 year old who witnessed its events. The title story, about how the narrator reins in his TV news star younger brother with the power both men possess but only the younger has used, unspools like the oral-history testimony of a yokel who's not so dumb after all. The faux Japanese "The Tale of Junko and Sayuri") and the faux European "King Pelles the Sure" each include the right amount of detail to seem to be recovered gems from the folklore of their regions. "Spook," which reels around an epic duel fought with bad verse, sounds wonderfully like Kerouac trying to be Steinbeck. If such be literary fantasy — and it is — write on, Mr. Beagle, write on!

          — Ray Olson

Yes, I would like to get We Never Talk About My Brother.