Unsettling Wonder

How can we tell if we desire anything? And, if we desire, is it our own self doing the desiring or something other--a flash of neurons, a memory of past life, the divine will? Karma. Predestination. Kismet. The oldest and darkest stories dare to ponder this question: Can we ever really know why anything happens in life?

This issue of Unsettling Wonder spins new stories to ask that old question, and challenge the ways we think we know the answer. Two djinn meet in a Glasgow bar to kvetch about the world's fortunes. A Caribbean grandmother leads her family into the stewpot. Cinderella's coachman recalls his life as a rat. A banshee strikes a devil's bargain. Featuring work by Kirsty Logan, Jack Butler, Katherine Langrish, Ioulia Kolovou, and many more, Tales of Kismet is a beautiful, haunting meditation on the caprices of fate.