The Girl with the Peacock Harp
by Michael Eisele
The fifteen strange stories that comprise this stunning debut collection range over the fantastic, the supernatural and the psychological. In ‘An Old Tale’, a young ballet student discovers hope beyond the barriers of death. ‘The Music’ tells of a violinist who must face the ghosts of his past; and those ghosts are brought to life in ‘The Beginning’. In ‘Gloria and the Selchie’ a modern Irish girl discovers that the stories her old granny told her are all too true, while in ‘The Lighthouse’, a retired sea captain falls in love. ‘What Dreams May Come’ moves the scene to modern day Manhattan, as an advertising executive is haunted by dreams of a giant raptor. In ‘Sanity’, the boundary between delusion and reality becomes a battlefield between a patient and her therapist. ‘Rolf’ takes the reader to the world of the medieval mason, and a strange apprenticeship. ‘The Change’ concerns the legend of the were-wolf from an unusual point of view, and in ‘The Kelpie’, a novice mage learns the true extent of her powers.Michael Eisele’s stories entertain, entrance and delight in equal measure.