Stephen King delivers his astonishing first collection of short stories since Everything's Eventual

Who but Stephen King would turn a Port-O-San into a slimy birth canal, or a roadside honky-tonk into a place for endless love?  A book salesman with a grievance might pick up a mute hitchhiker, not knowing the silent man in the passenger seat listens altogether too well.  Or an exercise routine on a stationary bicycle, begun to reduce bad cholesterol, might take its rider on a captivating - and then terrifying - journey.  Set on a remote key in Florida, "The Gingerbread Girl" is a riveting tale featuring a young woman as vulnerable - and resourceful - as Audrey Hepburn's character in Wait Until Dark.  In "Ayana," a blind girl works a miracle with a kiss and the touch of her hand.  For King, the line between the living and the dead is often blurry, and the seams that hold our reality intact might tear apart at any moment.  In "N.," which recently broke new ground when it was adapted as a graphic digital entertainment, a psychiatric patient's irrational thinking might create an apocalyptic threat in the Maine countryside... or keep the world from falling victim to it.

Junt After Sunset - call it dusk, call it twilight, it's a time when human intercourse takes on an unnatural cast, when nothing is quite as it appears, when the imagination begins to reach for shadows as they dissipate to darkness and living daylight can be scared right out of you.  It's the perfect time for Stephen King.

Stephen King has written more than forty novels and two hundred short stories.  He is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Lifetime Achievement.  In 2007 he was inducted as a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America.  King has also received the 0. Henry Award for his story The Man in the Black Suit, and he is the editor of The Best American Short Stories 2007.  Among his most recent worldwide bestsellers are Duma Key, Lisey's Story, Cell, the Dark Tower series, On Writing, The Green Mile and Bag of Bones.  He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.