Metamorphica

Mason shows that [The Lost Books of the Odyssey] was a warm-up for an even more ambitious reimagining of an epic work. Where Odysseus unifies the earlier work, Ovid's Metamorphoses and, necessarily, Mason's latest are more sprawling, introducing readers to the likes of Icarus, Midas, Orpheus, and Eurydice . . . Both soaring and deep, this dazzling narrative creates a fictional universe of myth that transcends time itself. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Metamorphica is a joy of a book. Mason understands beautifully that traditions are most powerful in their reinvention. Beyond their tremendous lyricism and admirable control, these retellings of Mediterranean myth offer the truest pleasure of all fiction, its immense possibility. Metamorphica brims with imagination and an astonishing empathy that reminds us that even the most ancient of legends can feel urgent to us today, if only we would just listen. --Kanish Tharoor, author of Swimmer Among the Stars

Lush and very smart . . . the stories . . . throb with tragedy, transformation, and wars." --JR Ramakrishnan, Electric Literature on The Lost Books of the Odyssey

"[An] impressive collection of flash fictions that accentuate the pain, frustrations, and regrets of well-known and unfamiliar myths." --Publishers Weekly on The Lost Books of the Odyssey

"Jubilant in execution. Perverse and irreverent." --Katherine A. Powers, The Boston Globe on The Lost Books of the Odyssey

"Mason's prose is finely wrought . . . His imagination soars and his language delights." --Adam Mansbach, The New York Times Book Review

"Clever, compelling, and often poignant . . . Mason's puckishly archaic diction, a wiseacre's revision of Richmond Lattimore with swing and jazz, is such a pleasure." --Jesse Berrett, San Francisco Chronicle