The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales

Book excerpt: Winner of the Scott PrizeTwenty tales of lust and loss. These stories feature clockwork hearts, lascivious queens, paper men, island circuses, and a flooded world. On the island of Skye, an antlered girl and a tiger-tailed boy resolve never to be friends – but can they resist their unique connection? In an alternative 19th-century Paris, a love triangle emerges between a man, a woman, and a coin-operated boy. A teenager deals with his sister's death by escaping from their tiny Scottish island – but will she let him leave? In 1920s New Orleans, a young girl comes of age in her mother's brothel. Some of these stories are radical retellings of classic tales, some are modern-day fables, but all explore substitutions for love.