Mirrors shatter at the hairdresser's when a middle-aged client explodes in rage. Snow dusts the warm body of a princess, honing it into something sharp and frosted. Summer sunshine flickers on the face of a smiling child who may or may not be real. Sampling the very best of A.S. Byatt's short fiction—and with a substantial introduction by David Mitchell—the stories here include "The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye," "The July Ghost," "The Lucid Dreamer," "Dragons' Breath," and "The Chinese Lobster."