The bell, the lantern, the witching hour...

A refugee arrives from elsewhere in time; a generation ship makes landfall; a vast galactic empire settles to the business of government. Tarot readers find hope in the cards; witches live through the aftermath of war; and Indian mothers think it's high time you were married. Here are thirteen stories of love and queerness, hope and decolonisation, and the inevitability of change.

Includes a new introduction by the author and four previously unpublished folktales.

"[Iona Datt Sharma] is adept at creating entire worlds in a compact, delicately finished package, blending pure sensibility with the best bits of the magical realist movement."
- Jeannelle M. Ferreira, author of The Covert Captain