Elementals. Stories of Fire and Ice.

First edition. Pp. [viii], 232. Black cloth boards, lettered in gilt to spine and front; maroon endpapers. With six illustrations. Detail from Edvard Munch's painting Red and White (1899), Munch Museum, to jacket front, and Harald Sohlberg's Winter Night in the Mountains (1914), National Gallery of Norway, to rear jacket panel. True first with "Peter" instead of "Pier" on acknowledgements page.

Signed by Author to title page.

In the same format as The Matisse Stories and The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, this collection of short stories deals with betrayal and loyalty, quests and longings, loneliness and passion – the mysterious absences at the heart of the fullest lives. "Fired by a fierce intelligence and related in shimmering prose. This eclectic little volume should delight A.S. Byatt's devoted readers and attract many new ones." –The New York Times