The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye: Five Fairy Stories

Gillian Perholt, an independent and sensible scholar, no longer young, is given a bottle of beautiful 'nightingale's eye' glass by a Turkish friend. Inside it is trapped a huge (and very male) djinn, a magical genie who must grant her three wishes in return for his release. Gillian's use of her wishes -- she is an expert in fairy stories and in what can go wrong with wishes -- is careful and surprising. The story takes the professor and the djinn from Istanbul to Toronto and Madison Avenue. The two discover one another's worlds, with respect, and something more. 'The Glass Coffin' and 'Gode's Story' are included here, with three contemporary additions: 'The Story of the Eldest Princess, ' 'Dragons' Breath, ' and the incomparable novella-length title story. Byatt's inventive and enticing stories are both magical and very modern. They are fairy tales for adults, which retain the mystery and beauty of the world we imagine as children.