"These five stories range from the surreal to the tear-jerker, as the Old West is held upside down by its boots and shaken until all common sense falls out into the crucible of parody. In Rumors from the Edge of the World, Kid Concho and his Arizona outlaw gang of misfits stumble upon a prophetic Apache spring. Too Long in the Saddle follows the exploits of a Boston newspaper reporter who is ordered on assignment to frontier Kansas. Code of the Ranger...

Venice, 1736. Violetta has a secret: When she climbs out of her window at the Hospital of the Incurables, the revered music school and orphanage that has always been her home, she can look out over the city and dream. But when she stumbles upon Mino, a violinist from the boys' hall who also seeks solace in the skyline, she feels a surprising connection. The two begin a passionate duet that will transform their lives. Yet, as Mino becomes determined...

Three short stories expand the Delirium world, untangling the mysteries surrounding Lena's mother, exploring Raven's rebel group in the Wilds, and detailing the summer before Lena and Hana are to be cured.

"Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others—in which a newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a search that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies...

"Zara Jones believes in magic because the alternative is too painful to consider—that her murdered sister is gone forever and there is nothing she can do about it. Rather than grieving and moving on, Zara decides she will do whatever it takes to claw her sister back from the grave—even trading in the occult. Jude Wolf may be the daughter of a billionaire, but she is also undeniably cursed. After a deal with a demon went horribly wrong, her soul...

"The man known as Wilde is a mystery to everyone, including himself. Decades ago, he was found as a boy living feral in the woods, with no memory of his past. After the police concluded an exhaustive hunt for the child's family, which was never found, he was turned over to the foster system. Now, thirty years later, Wilde still doesn't know where he comes from, and he's back living in the woods on the outskirts of town, content to be an outcast, comfortable...

In 1917, deep in the snowy mountains of occupied Korea, an impoverished local hunter on the brink of starvation saves a young Japanese officer from an attacking tiger. In an instant, their fates are connected, and from this encounter unfolds a saga that spans half a century. In the aftermath, a young girl named Jade is sold by her family to Miss Silver's courtesan school, an act of desperation that will cement her place in the lowest social status....

"Plain, poor, plus-size, and autistic, Alesta grew up trying to convince her beauty-obsessed kingdom that she’s too useful to be sacrificed. Their god blessed their island Soladisa as a haven for his followers, but to keep the devil at bay, the church sends a child sacrifice to hell’s entrance every season―often poor or plain girls just like Alesta. With a head full of ideas for inventions, Alesta knows her best shot at making it to adulthood...

"In 1924, an orphan train passes through the Midwest, and two teenagers, seeking a new life, find nothing but hardship when taken in to live on a farm in Michigan. Mercy, a teenage girl of mixed race, and a boy nicknamed Rope, who lost fingers in a factory accident, become virtual prisoners of Harlan and Estelle Nau, whose children died during the Spanish flu epidemic. After facing abuse, Mercy and Rope flee, making an arduous journey into sparsely...

"While most use their summer breaks for pleasure, third grade teacher Cindy Moore is using her summer vacation to tie up some loose ends concerning her grandmothers estate. When Cindy enters the storage unit that holds her grandmother's belongings, she is merely looking for items she can sell to recoup some of the rental fees she's spent paying for the unit. Instead, what she finds are secrets her grandmother has taken to the grave with her. The more...