Tales of Pain & Wonder [trade paperback] by Caitlin R. Kiernan [DINK]

This collection of twenty-two short stories by the author of Daughter of Hounds and Alabaster, originally published in 2000, firmly established Caitlín R. Kiernan as one of the preeminent voices in dark fantasy today. Through a cycle of interconnected narratives, Kiernan unflinchingly explores a surreal world where the fantastic and the mundane are never separated by more than the insubstantial thickness of a shadow. From the murderous back-streets of New Orleans toan abandoned shipyard on the Hudson River, from sun-weary Los Angeles to a maze of dank and forgotten tunnels beneath Man-hattan, these stories present a landscape at once alien and un-deniably familiar.

CONTENTS
The twenty-two stories that comprise this edition of Tales of Pain and Wonder have been arranged according to the date that they were written, regardless of the very loose narrative that connects many of the pieces. Below is an alternative Table of Contents with the stories arranged by their narrative chronology, for those wishing to read them in that order.

In the Water Works (Birmingham, Alabama 1888)
To This Water (Johnstown, Pennsylvania 1889)
Estate
Salammbô
Salmagundi
Mercury
Lafayette
Breakfast in the House of the Rising Sun
Glass Coffin
Tears Seven Times Salt
The Last Child of Lir
Postcards from the King of Tide
Paedomorphosis
Bela’s Plot
A Story for Edward Gorey
Superheroes
Anamorphosis
Rats Live on No Evil Star
The Long Hall on the Top Floor
San Andreas (1998)
. . . Between the Gargoyle Trees
Salammbô Redux (2007)