Medusa’s Ankles: Selected Stories

This mega-selection of stories by Booker Prize winner Byatt (Possession) ranges from contemporary to folk and fairy tale and often blends them together. For instance, tales of Scheherazade and Gilgamesh mix with Turkish history and myth in the long central story, “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye,” as well-known “narratologist” Gillian Perholt attends a conference in Turkey. As the narrative moves from Ankara to Ephesus, Gillian eventually winds up in a bazaar, where her purchase of a dusty glass bottle leads to a dazzling outcome. From the opener, “The July Ghost,” in which a new tenant is the only one capable of seeing his landlady’s dead son; to “Dolls’ Eyes,” in which a schoolteacher has an unnatural affection for her large doll collection; to the title story, about the confessional relationship women have with their hairdressers, Byatt holds readers in thrall. The darker folktales offer up all manner of intriguing creatures: an enchanted fish at the bottom of a swimming pool, a delicate princess who can’t survive without the cold, and a grieving woman whose body slowly turns to stone.