Title: The Slantwise Histories: Collected StoriesPages: 304
Publication Date: Oct. 20, 2026
Publisher: Tor
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy
Synopsis:
From the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of The Everlasting and Starling House comes a new fantastical collection of stories about tricksters and ghosts, magics ordinary and spectacular. Alix E. Harrow spins tales never-told and seen just outside the periphery of reality--in the tradition of Angela Carter, Anne Sexton, and Carmen Maria Machado, these hauntingly resonant and defiant stories leap from the page and dance in and out of a history that never was (but could have been) and into a future startingly like our own.
Before I was a liar I was a historian, which is a kind of storyteller who doesn’t make any money and likes footnotes.
These are stories about the past as it wasn’t quite, but might have been, from ancient battlefields all the way up through roadside attractions off I-70. They’re about the people caught in the mean jaws of history: the women and workers, the soldiers and mothers, everyone shoved into the margins of the world.
But these aren’t singular tragedies―these are the stories of the ones that got away. The ones who defected and dissented, who broke the rules, who ran and tossed a match behind them. SLANTWISE HISTORIES AND OTHER STORIES collects the best known short fiction of Alix. E. Harrow, including the Hugo-award winning "A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies" and for the first time in print, Amazon original titles "The Six Deaths of the Saint" and "The Knight and the Butcherbird". Updated to reflect the author's preferred editions, Slantwise Histories also includes "The Long Way Up", "Roadside Attraction", "Mr. Death", "The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly", "The Sycamore and the Sybil", "Do Not Look Back, My Lion", "The Whisper in the Weld", "Dustbaby", and four all-new short stories.
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What is a legend, but a history told slantwise?
I’ve read every book Alix E. Harrow has written, and every single one has been a five-star read for me. Her stories are always so rich and atmospheric, her prose is gorgeous, and she has this amazing ability to weave so much emotion, meaning, and depth into her storytelling. I’d read a couple of these stories before, like my fave, “The Knight and the Butcherbird,” but many were new to me, and all of them were impactful and thought-provoking.
Something that really stood out to me while I was reading was how much Harrow managed to explore within the confines of a short story. It’s incredible. She takes elements of folklore, fantasy, and history and uses them to explore and examine power, injustice, grief, freedom, and the ways our histories are shaped by those who have the power to tell them. Each story leaves you with a lot to think about for different reasons. I also like how Harrow can make a story feel both steeped in fantasy and totally relatable to the world we live in. It’s a fine balance, and it’s done so well throughout this collection.
There were several standout stories for me, including “The Knight and the Butcherbird,” “Mr. Death,” “The Tale of the Two Brothers, Or, The Famous Folklorist Confesses Fratricide,” “The Six Deaths of the Saint,” and “Roadside Attraction.” If I were still a high school English teacher, I would want to add so many of these stories to my curriculum! lol I feel like these are stories that teens and adults alike can relate to, from the themes and symbolism to the social commentaries, and they would definitely generate some interesting class discussions.
Alix E. Harrow has an exceptional gift for telling poignant, layered stories that stay with you, and this is another five-star read from an author whose work I will always be excited to pick up. The stories have a lot to say about the world, but they also have something to say about being human. They made me feel, think, and appreciate just how much a talented writer can accomplish in a relatively small number of pages.
Hunger doesn’t weaken one’s ethics so much as swallow them, bones and all.
“They’ve taken our histories. But they haven’t taken our stories. Listen: When they burn the books and drown the land – when even our gravestones are cracked, dug up, washed away – when they have won – then all we have left is what w remember, and what we whisper to one another.”
“I would rather love a coward than mourn a legend.”
a former academic, adjunct, cashier, blueberry-harvester, and kentuckian, alix e. harrow is now a full-time writer living in virginia with her husband and their semi-feral kids.
she is the hugo award-winning and nyt-bestselling author of THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY (2019), THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES (2020), a duology of fairytale novellas (A SPINDLE SPLINTERED and A MIRROR MENDED), STARLING HOUSE (2023) and various short fiction. her next book, THE EVERLASTING, will be out on october 28th, 2025!
her writing is represented by kate mckean at howard morhaim literary agency.
