Stories to delight, enchant, and surprise you. Bestselling author and master storyteller Neil Gaiman here presents a breathtaking collection of tales that may chill or amuse readers—but always embrace the unexpected: A teenage boy who has trouble talking to girls finds himself at a rather unusual party. A sinister jack-in-the-box haunts the lives of the children who owned it. A boy raised in a graveyard makes a discovery and confronts the much more troubling world of the living. A stray cat fights a nightly battle to protect his adopted family from a terrible evil. These eleven stories illuminate the real and the fantastic, and will be welcomed with great joy by Neil Gaiman's many fans as well as by readers coming to his work for the first time.

尼尔•盖曼（Neil Gaiman）

欧美文坛新一代幻想文学大师，文学魔术界的精灵王子，畅销小说作家，无数奖项的获得者。他集记者、诗人、词作者、编剧和导演于一身，将想象、趣味与智慧完美结合，被《文学传记辞典》誉为十大后现代作家之一。

他二十七岁开始文学创作，卓越的才华很快为其赢得了许多殊荣。《睡神》系列的《仲夏夜之梦》一举赢得了世界奇幻奖。之后的《美国众神》可谓幻想类文学的奇葩，先后获得雨果奖、星云奖及布拉姆•斯托克奖，成为了盖曼的代表作。源源不断的灵感赋予了他更大的创作热情，此后，《卡罗琳》和《绿字的研究》两获雨果奖，前者也再度问鼎布拉姆•斯托克奖。

如今，尼尔•盖曼更是好莱坞的宠儿和许多制片人眼中的金童。其作品很多都被搬上了银幕，《蜘蛛男孩》、《镜面具》、《乌有乡》、《星尘》等皆有不俗反响。正是像尼尔•盖曼这样的说故事大师，让原本昙花一现的故事元素有了不断的轮回，有了绵亘的新生。