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Letters from an Imaginary Country

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Pub Date Nov 11 2025 | Archive Date Not set

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Description

Roam through the captivating stories of World Fantasy, Locus, and Mythopoeic Award winner Theodora Goss (the Athena Club trilogy). This themed collection of imaginary places, with three new stories, recalls Susanna Clarke’s alternate Europe and the surreal metafictions of Jorge Luis Borges. Deeply influenced by the author’s Hungarian childhood during the regime of the Soviet Union, each of these stories engages with storytelling and identity, including her own.

The infamous girl monsters of nineteenth-century fiction gather in London and form their own club. In the imaginary country of Thüle. Characters from folklore band together to fight a dictator. An intrepid girl reporter finds the hidden land of Oz—and joins its invasion of our world. The author writes the autobiography of her alternative life and a science fiction love letter to Budapest. The White Witch conquers England with snow and silence.

Roam through the captivating stories of World Fantasy, Locus, and Mythopoeic Award winner Theodora Goss (the Athena Club trilogy). This themed collection of imaginary places, with three new stories...


A Note From the Publisher

World Fantasy, Locus, and Mythopoeic Award-winning author and poet Theodora Goss was born in Hungary, and spent her childhood in various European countries before her family moved to the United States. Goss is the author of the novel trilogy The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman, and The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl. Her short story and poetry collections include In the Forest of Forgetting, Songs for Ophelia, and Snow White Learns Witchcraft. She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Crawford, and Shirley Jackson Awards, as well as on the Tiptree Award Honor List. Goss’s work has also been translated into fifteen languages. Currently, she teaches at several creative writing workshops, and in written, oral, and visual rhetoric at Boston University. Visit her at theodoragoss.com.

World Fantasy, Locus, and Mythopoeic Award-winning author and poet Theodora Goss was born in Hungary, and spent her childhood in various European countries before her family moved to the United...


Advance Praise

“Literary, lyrical, lovely. An elegant waltz through history and literature, with a fantastical turn.”
—Marie Brennan, author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent series

“Theodora Goss’ luminous collection explores duality and liminality in identity, belonging, and setting. Goss’ formidable powers as an observer and storyteller are showcased in these beautiful stories.”
—Fran Wilde, Nebula-winning author of A Catalog of Storms

“Wildly imaginative, gloriously sneaky, delicious tales of monsters and the terrible and beautiful sublimity of the imagination.”
—Cory Doctorow, author of Red Team Blues and Walkaway

“The worlds in Theodora Goss’ wondrous collection Letters from an Imaginary Country are tantalizingly, dangerously close to our own. Or, rather, they are our troubling world, as refracted through our most treasured stories’ secondary characters, a keen feminist lens, and the products of a feverish imagination. These love letters to storytelling are sharp-witted and illuminating.”
—David Ebenbach, author of How to Mars 

“Literary, lyrical, lovely. An elegant waltz through history and literature, with a fantastical turn.”
—Marie Brennan, author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent series

“Theodora Goss’ luminous collection...


Marketing Plan

• Promotion targeting reviews and interviews in leading media venues
• Author tour to include Boston, Massachusetts, national, and European appearances in bookstores, libraries, and conferences
• Print and digital ARC distribution via Goodreads, NetGalley, and Edelweiss+
• Planned book giveaways to include Goodreads and Storygraph
• Outreach to librarians and independent booksellers via regional and national trade shows and mailings
• Online promotion to include book blog tour, cover reveal, and social media campaigns via Instagram, BlueSky, Facebook, and other outlets

• Promotion targeting reviews and interviews in leading media venues
• Author tour to include Boston, Massachusetts, national, and European appearances in bookstores, libraries, and conferences
• Print...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781616964405
PRICE $18.95 (USD)
PAGES 352

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Average rating from 2 members


Featured Reviews

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LETTERS FROM AN IMAGINARY COUNTRY by Theodora Goss

This is an intriguing collection of “what if?” stories, full of possibilities, inviting one to ponder and wonder long after reading. Some were familiar, having appeared elsewhere, and fun to see again. Some are brand new, written especially for this book, with parallels and lessons applicable to our real (or is it?) world.
I was most enthralled by the new renderings of familiar tales: the truth in Mina’s Diary, the important mission of the Lost Girls of Oz, Estella with a kind and loving Miss Havisham, Frankenstein’s very lovely daughter. I was also intrigued by revelations of new and alien worlds and visitors.
These are beautifully written, inviting rereading and meditation on truths revealed or merely hinted at. I’m glad to have them all in one place, easy to revisit.

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