Obsessive, prudish, and cold, Merry Gold lives in denial of her own condition. This seamstress--the eldest and meanest of the three Gold sisters--possesses a tarnished past and faces a bleak and lonely future. Guilty about her destructive desires and longing for innocence, her inner turmoil and explosive imagination belie a disarming honesty. A sequel to "The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold, "the novel follows Merry from her suburban childhood through design school and a whirlwind of lovers, and into a desolate adulthood. Beginning with a toy seal and ending with mushrooms, this fairy tale set in modern times creeps through cruelty and violence to its inevitable end. Reminiscent of a miniature, fragile ice sculpture, "The Complete Tales of Merry Gold "glistens with hard-hearted bliss. Kate Bernheimer has once again delved into the internal anguish of the Gold family to extract a magical, carefully stitched tale of strange and happy fear. Kate Bernheimer, Assistant Professor in the Creative Writing Program at The University of Alabama, has been the George Bennett Fellow in Creative Writing at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. She is the editor of the journal "Fairy Tale Review "and the book "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore their Favorite Fairy Tales. "