In Cradle Book, Craig Morgan Teicher has looked back at thelong tradition of the fable, one of the oldest literary forms, and updated itfor our era. These short fictions---most no more than a page or two---are setjust outside of time, in an imagined world gone by or in one very much like ourown, but haunted by portentous birds, lonesome trees, love-starved Gods, wolvesor wolf-wannabes, sad and naughty children, wanderers, and fires and rocks withminds of their own. These are stories with poetry in their blood, or poemsdressed up in fiction, fairy tales for grown-ups, though be careful if you readthem before going to bed."Wrapped Lightly in Philosophy and whimsy andwisdom, here's a book to be savoured, and revisited, and read aloud.  Teicher is brewing some elegant magichere."---Aimee Bender "Populated with Account-Keeping Birds, wolveswhose `bite is like a breeze,' an invisible man, a nameless man, and childrenwho find dust balls and `care for particular clumps as pets.' Teicher's storiesare full of mystery and doubt and despair. These are fables with the hearts ofhaiku. Their conclusions, if they may even be termed as such, are full ofquestion marks and quicksand and rabbit holes. A writer imagines writing a linethat goes through the paper and into the horizon and writes, `I will followthat line until there is no next thing': a story can't settle on its subject;men die and become crows. With the lightest touch Teicher prods at our humanmysteries, cloaking a very real and complex view of the world we live inthrough the language and staging of fairytale, diorama, anddream."---Matthea Harvly