The Book of Fables

Former United States Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin’s highly acclaimed, enigmatic short prose pieces—what he termed “fables”—blur the distinctions between essay, fiction, and poetry. Reminiscent of works by Kafka, Borges, and Bowles, they plumb our experiences of memory, sight, and dream travel. Originally published as The Miner’s Pale Children and Houses and Travelers, these poems create imaginative landscapes both sensuous and severe through metaphor and surrealist visions.