Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman (1960 - ) is a wonder of the literary world. He is a breaker of categories, because his writing is respectful of the possible audience, whether that audience is 8 or 18 or 48 or 98, male or female or somewhere in-between, die-hard fantasy reader or Common Reader or suspicious of words on a page, human or alien or somewhere in-between.
Gaiman is profoundly interested in myth and fairy tales, archetypes and companions of the id, the vast range of fantastic literature (folktales to ghost stories to pulp thumpers). He can be funny or precisely delicate or heart-wrenching or sly or terrifying to such an extent that there is no place to hide from the monsters. He has worked in graphic literature (the Sandman series), children's books, young adult fiction, fantasy, film, and the art of the audiobook. I mention the audio in particular because he often reads his own works, and once you hear him you are amazed that such an acting ability is from the same writer.
Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions
Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions
The distinctive storytelling genius of Neil Gaiman has been acclaimed by writers as diverse as Norman Mailer and Stephen King. Now in this new collection of stories — several of which have never before appeared in print, and more than half that have never been collected — that will dazzle the senses and haunt the imagination. Miraculous inventions and unforgettable characters inhabit these pages: an elderly widow who finds the Holy Grail in a second-hand store...a frightened little boy who bargains for his life with a troll living under a bridge by the railroad tracks...a stray cat who battles nightly against a recurring evil that threatens his unsusupecting adoptive family. In these stories, Gaiman displays the power, wit, insight and outrageous originality that has made him one of the most unique literary artists of our day.