Daydreams of Angels

'Like Angela Carter, she is relentlessly inventive' Sunday Times

Award-winning short stories by the Bailey's Prize longlisted author of The Lonely Hearts Hotel

A cherub breaks all the rules when he spends one night with a girl on earth.

Snow White and Rose Red forge a unique way to survive the Paris occupation.

A soldier is brought back to life by a toymaker, but he's not grateful.

And a child begins the story of a Gypsy and a bear, who have to finish it themselves.

These are old stories, but not as you know them. These are set not in the forests of Europe or fantasy worlds, but on the battlefields of World War Two and the wilderness of downtown Montreal.

With her blazing imagination, irreverent humour and arresting prose, Heather O'Neill twists them anew: more magical for their realism, more profound for their darkness; captivating, witty and wicked.

“Like [Angela] Carter, O'Neill subverts her stories with an adult and casually seamy emphasis, and she is relentlessly inventive . . . Never less than entertaining, Daydreams of Angels has an agile intelligence”

Like [Angela] Carter, O'Neill subverts her stories with an adult and casually seamy emphasis, and she is relentlessly inventive . . . Never less than entertaining, Daydreams of Angels has an agile intelligence Sunday Times
Magical and inventive Macleans
Strange but irresistible fairy tales for adults . . . O'Neill is a wondrous writer whose clean declarative sentences push the stories forward. She also has an astonishing gift for metaphor Toronto Star
Wonderful, heart-catching book of storytelling . . . It is indicative of O'Neill's tendency toward the grittily dreamy that they blend together so deliciously Winnipeg Free Press
Takes the classic trope of a lost soul in search of salvation and gives it a parade of original twists . . . O'Neill's dark fairy tales will be right up your alley. Keep this collection on the nightstand, and you'll be sure to kick your dreamscape up a notch Kirkus

Heather O'Neill is a novelist, poet, short-story writer, screenwriter, and essayist. Lullabies for Little Criminals, her debut novel, was published in 2007 to international critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her second novel, The Girl who was Saturday Night, was longlisted for the Baileys Women's Fiction Prize, and shortlisted for the Giller Prize, as was her collection of short stories, Daydreams of Angels. Her third novel, The Lonely Hearts Hotel was longlisted for the Baileys prize. Born and raised in Montreal, O'Neill lives there today with her daughter.

'Like Angela Carter, she is relentlessly inventive' Sunday Times Award-winning short stories by the Bailey's Prize longlisted author of The Lonely Hearts Hotel A cherub breaks all the rules when he spends one night with a girl on earth.Snow White and Rose Red forge a unique way to survive the Paris occupation.A soldier is brought back to life by a toymaker, but he's not grateful.And a child begins the story of a Gypsy and a bear, who have to finish it themselves.These are old stories, but not as you know them. These are set not in the forests of Europe or fantasy worlds, but on the battlefields of World War Two and the wilderness of downtown Montreal. With her blazing imagination, irreverent humour and arresting prose, Heather O'Neill twists them anew: more magical for their realism, more profound for their darkness; captivating, witty and wicked.

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