From the author of the instant New York Times best seller Swamplandia! (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), a dazzling new collection of stories that showcases Karen Russell's gifts at their inimitable best.

In the collection's marvelous title story, two aging vampires in a sun-drenched Italian lemon grove find their hundred-year marriage tested when one of them develops a fear of flying. In "The Seagull Army Descends on Strong Beach, 1979," a dejected teenager discovers that the universe is communicating with him through talismanic objects left in a seagull's nest. "Proving Up" and "The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis"--stories of children left to fend for themselves in dire predicaments--find Russell veering into more sinister territory, and ultimately crossing the line into full-scale horror. In "The New Veterans," a massage therapist working with a tattooed war veteran discovers she has the power to heal by manipulating the images on his body. In all, these wondrous new pieces display a young writer of superlative originality and invention coming into the full range and scale of her powers.

List of Stories and Readers:

• "Vampires in the Lemon Grove" read by Arthur Morey
• "Reeling for the Empire" read by Joy Osmanski
• "The Seagull Army Descends on Strong Beach, 1979" read by Kaleo Griffith
• "Proving Up" read by Jesse Bernstein
• "The Barn at the End of Our Term" read by Mark Bramhall
• "Dougbert Shackleton's Rules of Antarctic Tailgating" read by Michael Bybee
• "The New Veterans" read by Romy Rosemont
• "The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis" read by Robbie Daymond