As I said, the rest of the book is hardly older. Last year, we saw a first rate three story chapbook from Dreamhaven Books, Strange Birds. All three stories are here (though minus Lisa Snellings-Clark's excellent art). "King Pelles the Sure" is a profoundly moving story about a King who foolishly leads his country into war, and who tries to find haven then redemption in exile. "Spook" is more of a trifle, featuring Farrell (from "Lila the Werewolf") battling a ghost haunting his and his lover's new studio. And "Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel" is a powerful tale of a painter commanded by a fallen angel to paint her, over and over, until finally we learn the angel's secret -- a terribly sad secret, resolved quite beautifully here.

The title story features brothers significantly named Jacob and Esau, and how Jacob deals with Esau's unhappy power to change the near past. In the end, we see that some people rend and some mend. "The Last and Only; or Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French" is an utterly charming tale of a man in California who slowly, but quite completely, becomes French -- indeed, more French than the French. "The Tale of Junko and Sayuri" is a Japanese-set fantasy, about a commoner who marries a shapechanger who schemes for his advancement -- at first a good thing (the man truly is worthy) -- but of course too much ambition is ever a cause of downfall. "Chandail" tells of a woman encountering the title sea creature, which cruelly (to the woman) communicates mentally by using memories -- memories she'd rather not have brought to mind. Her response is a different sort of cruelty. Beagle never fails to engross and also to center his stories on a true moral point without moralizing.

There is also a sequence of poems from the 70s, "The Unicorn Tapestries", much worth bringing to light. Beagle is a treasure, that's all there is to it, and each new story is a wonder, and this book is thoroughly worth reading.