In this collection, gifted poet and novelist Kim Addonizio uses her literary powers to bring to life a variety of settings, all connected through the suggestion that things in the known world are not what they seem.
In "Beautiful Lady of the Snow," young Annabelle turns to a host of family pets to combat the alienation she feels caught between her distracted mother and ailing grandfather; in "Night Owls," a young college student's crush on her acting partner is complicated by the bloodlust of being half-vampire; in "Cancer Poems," a dying woman turns to a poetry workshop to make sense of her terminal diagnosis and final days; in "Intuition," a young girl's sexual forays bring her closer to her best friend's father; and in the collection's title story, a photographer looks back to his youth spent as a young illusionist under the big tent and his obsessive affair with the carnival owner's wife.
Distracted parents, first love, the twin forces of alienation and isolation: the characters in
The Palace of Illusions
all must contend with these challenges, trafficking in the fault lines between the real and the imaginary, often in a world not of their making.
The stories in this collection have appeared in journals ranging from
Narrative Magazine
to
The Fairy Tale Review
, and include the much loved "Ever After," which was featured on NPR's "Selected Shorts."