Reality by Other Means: The Best Short Fiction of James Morrow

World Fantasy Award nominee 2016.

Join the Abominable Snowman as, determined to transcend his cannibalistic past, he studies Tibetan Buddhism under the Dalai Lama. Pace the walls of Ilium with fair Helen as she tries to convince both sides to abandon their absurd Trojan War. Visit the nursery of Zenobia Garber, born to a Pennsylvania farm couple who accept her for the uncanny little biosphere she is. Scramble aboard the raft built by the passengers and crew of the sinking Titanic — and don’t be surprised when the vessel transmutes into a world even more astonishing than the original Ship of Dreams. Reality by Other Means offers readers the most celebrated results from James Morrow’s thirty-five-year career designing fictive thought experiments. Anchored by seven previously uncollected stories, this omnibus ranges from social satire to theological hijinks, steampunk escapades to philosophical antics.

Contents:

• Introduction by Gary K. Wolfe
  
• “Bigfoot and the Bodhisattva”
• “The Cat’s Pajamas”
• “Arms and the Woman”
• “The War of the Worldviews”
• “Bible Stories for the Adults, No. 17: The Deluge”
• “Spinoza’s Golem”
• “Known But to God and Wilbur Hines”
• “Daughter Earth”
• “The Vampires of Paradox”
• “Bible Stories for Adults, No. 31: The Covenant”
• “Lady Witherspoon’s Solution”
• “Martyrs of the Upshot Knothole”
• “Auspicious Eggs”
• “The Iron Shroud”
• “Fixing the Abyss”
• “The Wisdom of the Skin”
• “The Raft of the Titanic”