The Bread We Eat in Dreams eBook

Subterranean Press proudly presents a major new collection by one of the brightest stars in the literary firmament. Catherynne M. Valente, the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and other acclaimed novels, now brings readers a treasure trove of stories and poems in The Bread We Eat in Dreams.

In the Locus Award-winning novelette “White Lines on a Green Field,” an old story plays out against a high school backdrop as Coyote is quarterback and king for a season. A girl named Mallow embarks on an adventure of memorable and magical politicks in “The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland—For a Little While.” The award-winning, tour de force novella “Silently and Very Fast” is an ancient epic set in a far-flung future, the intimate autobiography of an evolving A.I. And in the title story, the history of a New England town and that of an outcast demon are irrevocably linked.

The thirty-five pieces collected here explore an extraordinary breadth of styles and genres, as Valente presents readers with something fresh and evocative on every page. From noir to Native American myth, from folklore to the final frontier, each tale showcases Valente’s eloquence and originality.

Table of Contents:

• The Consultant
• White Lines on a Green Field
• The Bread We Eat in Dreams
• The Melancholy of Mechagirl
• A Voice Like a Hole
• The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland—For a Little While
• How to Raise a Minotaur
• Mouse Koan
• The Blueberry Queen of Wiscasset
• In the Future When All’s Well
• Fade to White
• The Hydrodynamic Front
• Static Overpressure
• Even Honest Joe Loves an Ice-Cold Brotherhood Beer!
• Optimum Burst Altitude
• The Shadow Effect
• Gimbels: Your Official Father’s Day Headquarters
• Flash Blindness
• Blast Wind
• Ten Grays
• Velocity Multiplied by Duration
• Aeromaus
• Red Engines
• The Wolves of Brooklyn
• One Breath, One Stroke
• Kallisti
• The Wedding
• The Secret of Being a Cowboy
• Twenty-Five Facts About Santa Claus
• We Without Us Were Shadows
• The Red Girl
• Aquaman and the Duality of Self/Other, America, 1985
• The Room
• Silently and Very Fast
• What the Dragon Said: A Love Story

From the New York Times:
“Ms. Valente, too, is adept at updating the tall tale, but also writes with grace and power. She was a poet first, and her precise and lyrical ear is apparent throughout 'The Bread We Eat in Dreams.' Her first sentences are especially inviting. 'These days, pretty much anything will turn you into a vampire' ('In the Future When All’s Well'); 'When I kissed her she tasted like Mars' ('Red Engines'); 'Santa Claus is real. However, your parents are folkloric constructs meant to protect and fortify children against the darknesses of the real world' ('Twenty-Five Facts About Santa Claus').

'It’s clear in these 26 stories and (a few) poems that Ms. Valente’s writing DNA is full of fable, fairy tale and myth drawn from deep wells worldwide. No one else besides Ms. Valente is going to tell us with absolute authority that 'the dragon’s a classic, the ’57 Chevy of chthonic threats,' or 'Outside, the night road to Pandemonium ran smooth and swift through the northern counties of Fairyland.'

From SFRevu:
“Cathrynne M. Valente's latest collection of short stories, The Bread We Eat in Dreams, showcases her lyrical, poetic writing to excellent effect, not least in the actual poems scattered amongst the prose stories in this collection. Valente's writing evokes the dreamlike cadences of fairy tales, but while some of the stories are thematically based on fairy tales, others apply this same aesthetic to stories about future dystopias and the emergence of sentient computer programs. Valente is an incredible author, and this collection shows off her versatility and her talent… I cannot recommend this collection highly enough. Valente has one of the most beautiful prose styles of any fantasy author writing today, and she combines this with a deep insight into human nature and the lives of those too often marginalized and excluded by the stories that we, as a society, choose to tell. Valente's stories are a magnificent corrective to this marginalization.”