A Cathedral of Myth and Bone

In sixteen contemporary fantasy stories and novellas, the author of Roses and Rot shares “myths for the modern age” (Maria Dahvana Headley).

A woman being written into her boyfriend’s fiction is at first flattered to be his muse, but then finds her real life literally consumed and overtaken by his. A desperate young woman makes a prayer to the Saint of Sidewalks, but the miracle she receives isn’t what she expected. A painter spies a naked man, crouched by the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, transform into a beautiful white bird and decides to paint him, and becomes involved in his curse. Another woman, a duelist and sacred blade for God and Her holy saints, finds that the price of truth is always blood. And in the novella “Once, Future,” Howard reimagines the Arthurian romance as a story that is told, and retold again, on a modern college campus, until the ending is right.

Mundane and magical, profane and reverent, romantic and uncompromising, A Cathedral of Myth and Bone journeys into the liminal spaces of contemporary fiction and unfurls them.

“With A Cathedral of Myth and Bone, Kat Howard cinches her place . . . as an Ovid of Sidewalk and Café metamorphoses.” —Fran Wilde

“[A] Brothers Grimm tale for the contemporary reader.” —School Library Journal (starred review)

“This strong and satisfying set of stories will appeal to mythology and fantasy enthusiasts.” —Publishers Weekly

“There is magic in this book. You just have to crack it open.” —Spectrum Culture