Twice upon a Time : Stories Book

Several years ago, with the acclaimed Twice Told Tales, Daniel Stern began weaving fresh modern tales from the thematic threads of great texts of the past. Now, these new, half-dozen, bold and witty variations prove once again that there are no real boundaries where books, ideas, lives, and love are concerned.

Twice Upon a Time focuses on some classic favorites—"Bartleby the Scrivener" by Herman Melville and "A Hunger Artist" by Frank Kafka—and turns them upside down with enchanting results. Pushing the boundaries even further, two famous poems by Wallace Stevens, "Sunday Morning" and "The Man with the Blue Guitar," draw forth stories both rueful and comic. And, as Eastern Europe was crumbling, Stern was inspired to write a novella of youth and lost illusions called "A Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels."