"In Tulsa, Oklahoma, there lived and was a writer who at one time was the best author of short prose in the world. His name was R. A. Lafferty" (Neil Gaiman). A selection of the best stories of "the most original of our writers" (Gene Wolfe), "our North American unrecognized Marquez" (Terry Bisson), "the craziest, most colorful and unexpected author alive" (Theodore Starjohn), one of those "unique writers who created their own literary language from scratch" (Michael Swanwick).