Magic Toyshop

In this brilliantly imagined novel, Angela Carter explores the tormented world of adolescence and the heart's ability to withstand even the deepest sorrows. "A tour de force . . . put out shoots of all Carter's fascinations, which turns up in her later books: illusion and stage magic, myths and folktales, sorcery, the allure of suffering, incest, revenge, escape".--Voice Literary Supplement.

One night, Melanie walks through the garden in her mother's wedding dress. The next morning the world is shattered and she's forced to leave her childhood home. She is sent to London to live with relatives she has never met. There, she meets Aunt Margaret, beautiful and speechless; and brooding Uncle Philip, who loves only the life-sized wooden puppets he creates in his toyshop.