Full of glimpses into gleaming worlds and fairy tales with teeth, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories is a collection of acclaimed and awarded work from Amal El-Mohtar.



With confidence and style, El-Mohtar guides us through exquisitely told and sharply observed tales about life as it is, was, and could be. Like miscellany from other worlds, these stories are told in letters, diary entries, reference materials, folktales, and lyrical prose.

Full of Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Hugo Award-winning and nominated stories, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories includes "Seasons of Glass and Iron," "The Green Book," "Madeleine," "The Lonely Sea in the Sky," "And Their Lips Rang with the Sun," "The Truth About Owls," "A Hollow Play," "Anabasis," "To Follow the Waves," "John Hollowback and the Witch," "Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers," "Pockets," and more.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.



Praise for this book

Praise for Amal El-Mohtar and The River Has Roots

"El-Mohtar is one of our finest crafters of sentences." —Esquire

"Half delicious murder ballad, half beguiling love story, Amal El-Mohtar transports us to Faerieland so seamlessly it seems as though she just stepped out of it." —Holly Black, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"A book you’ll want to revisit like a favorite song, especially once you know the words to sing along." —Kirkus, starred review

"This extraordinary novella is El-Mohtar's solo debut, after the splendid This Is How You Lose the Time War (2019), coauthored with Max Gladstone, went viral. It's a marvelous story that pulls on old Grimm fairy tales of violence and truth telling, of what it means to be sisters in a story of fae and folklore, and of the kind of true love that exists between sisters." —Booklist, starred review

"El-Mohtar’s solo debut (after cowriting This Is How You Lose the Time War with Max Gladstone) is a heart-wrenching fairy tale about the bonds of love and family. It’s a murder ballad in book form that will linger long after the final page is turned." —Library Journal, starred review

"El-Mohtar’s ethereal prose paints a clear picture of the unbreakable bond between her worthy heroines." —Publishers Weekly

“When it comes to storytelling, Amal El-Mohtar is like one of the grammarians of Thistleford, a magician capable of deftly transforming the familiar into the unfamiliar and the numinous into the humane. The River Has Roots is an utterly enchanting tale of love and longing, language and song, and the unbreakable bond of sisterhood.” —Fonda Lee, author of the Green Bone Saga

"Gorgeous and glorious! Every sentence sings! Amal El-Mohtar weaves a lovely and poignant fairy tale that will linger in your heart." —Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop

"This book is lyrical, elegant, and above all, kind. I devoured it in one sitting. This story feels like the smell of rain. This is a fairy tale wrapped in brilliant language. An absolute must-read. Amal El-Mohtar is quite simply one of the best writers on the scene in ages." —T. Kingfisher, New York Times bestselling author of A Sorceress Comes To Call

"The River Has Roots is the perfect fable: both bright and brutal, very old and brand new. It's a story that outlasts itself, lingering like a song; I adored it.” —Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House

"Amal El-Mohtar's genius fairytale reflects a truth we can never forget: words carry enormous power. The River Has Roots is truly exquisite." —Zoraida Córdova, USA Today bestselling author of The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina

"The River Has Roots is a beautiful, musical, and loving story, perfectly rendered in El-Mohtar's beautiful, musical, and loving prose. This novella has all the dark comforts of an old tale and all the light vigors of a new classic, and will inspire you to raise your voice in song with those you love." —Emma Törzs, author of Ink Blood Sister Scribe

"Amal El-Mohtar has taken a very old ballad and remade it so once again it has a new and splendid shine. The River Has Roots is about the borders that we cross and recross by accident or with purpose and how these passages remake us in the process. It’s about love, and language, and how language is always a kind of sorcery, and El-Mohtar’s writing is a demonstration, too, of this sorcery in action. It left me intoxicated." —Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love



“Amal El-Mohtar knows how to reel us in with beautiful prose and some of the most dazzling writing that we've seen.” —Cosmo

"El-Mohtar delivers a meditation on love—between sisters and between lovers—on language, magic, loyalty, and transformation.... El-Mohtar is a fantastic prose stylist, with an ear for poetry and a very apt sense for rhythm and metaphor." —Locus




About the AuthorAmal El-Mohtar is a Hugo Award-winning author of science fiction, fantasy, poetry and criticism, and the co-author of the New York Times bestseller This is How You Lose the Time War, written with Max Gladstone, which has been translated into over ten languages. Her reviews and articles have appeared in the New York Times and on NPR Books. She lives in Ottawa, Canada.
Title: Seasons of Glass and Iron : Stories
Author(s): Amal El-Mohtar
ISBN: 9781250341013
Copyright 2026
Release Date: March 24, 2026
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Countries: United States, Canada | Learn more about available countries
Language: English
Format: None available | Learn More about our supported formats
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