We Others

The surreal, magical, and vaguely threatening universe of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Millhauser is grandly portrayed in this story collection. Among the new tales, book lovers will not want to miss "The People of the Book," a story in the form of a graduation speech to young people who learn of their strange heritage from a distant past. The title piece is an enthralling ghost story, detailing the journey of a departed "soul" and his relationship to a lonely woman whose house he comes to inhabit. Others entries are drawn from previous collections that have been largely praised for their vivid imagination and seductive prose. Millhauser is fascinated by human inventions, using them as a starting point and then stepping into the realm of unreality, as when an invention Edison is working on in "The Wizard of West Orange" seems to open up an entire alternate universe of feeling and perception. Entertaining and disturbing, these brilliant creations are recommended for most fiction readers; an especially good choice for libraries that don't currently have at least some of Millhauser's collections.—Jim Coan, SUNY Coll. at Oneonta

The surreal, magical, and vaguely threatening universe of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Millhauser is grandly portrayed in this story collection. Among the new tales, book lovers will not want to miss "The People of the Book," a story in the form of a graduation speech to young people who learn of their strange heritage from a distant past. The title piece is an enthralling ghost story, detailing the journey of a departed "soul" and his relationship to a lonely woman whose house he comes to inhabit. Others entries are drawn from previous collections that have been largely praised for their vivid imagination and seductive prose. Millhauser is fascinated by human inventions, using them as a starting point and then stepping into the realm of unreality, as when an invention Edison is working on in "The Wizard of West Orange" seems to open up an entire alternate universe of feeling and perception.