Young Woman in a Garden: Stories by Delia Sherman

Trade paperback format.

A long anticipated first collection of fabulous stories with ghosts, fairies, artists, and even a merman.

Selected as one of Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year and recipient of 2 starred reviews.

Part of Locus Recommended Books

In her vivid and sly, gentle and wise long anticipated first collection, Delia Sherman takes seemingly insignificant moments in the lives of artists or sailors—the light out a window, the two strokes it takes to turn a small boat—and finds the ghosts haunting them, the magic surrounding them. Here are the lives that make up larger histories, here are tricksters and gardeners, faeries and musicians, all glittering and sparkling, finding beauty and hope and always unexpected, a touch of wild magic.

“Real magic, right next door, indeed; each of the 14 stories in Young Woman in a Garden deals with some version of that equation, and it’s a testament to Sherman’s award-winning knack for fabulism that she pulls off such impossibilities with whimsy, dazzle and heart — not to mention a sharp edge of darkness.”
— Jason Heller, NPR

“Known primarily for her novels, Delia Sherman now graces us with her debut story collection, Young Woman in a Garden, and proves she is as adroit at shorter lengths as she is with longer narratives. . . . The only flaw in this collection is that there are not more stories on the table of contents. You need this in your library.”
— Paul Di Filippo, Asimov’s

“Some of the people you will meet in Delia Sherman’s collection of stories include a mysterious painter, a ghost, a woman who knows her way around a sea cucumber, a young man enthralled by a ship’s figurehead, the owner of a very unusual ruby, and a prickly choirmaster — all of whom encounter someone, something, or some place that doesn’t quite fit with the world as they think it ought to behave. The witches have an unreasonably large garden; the ghost breaks ghostly rules; the man who falls in love with a fairy doesn’t get what he bargained for. But all the characters in Sherman’s stories adjust their expectations — some easily, some with more difficulty — and go on to fall more in love with an endlessly surprising world. Young Woman in a Garden is a lovely reminder to look up, and over the wall, and around the corner, even when you think you know what’s there.”
— Words for Nerds