Madeline Miller (The Song of Achilles; Circe; Galatea) offers a clever, pocket-sized myth retelling with Mestra, a righteous angle on the plight and redemption of the daughter of the king of Thessaly.
The privileged but prideful king offended the goddess Demeter with his greed, and she cursed him with never-ending hunger. To fill his bottomless need for sustenance, he has tried everything, sold everything, including (at this short story's opening) his daughter's hand in marriage. In desperation, Mestra prays for deliverance, and is rewarded with the ability to shapeshift. When she returns home, Mestra's father commands to make helpful use of her new power, shifting into various forms that he can sell: beautiful young women, horses, a milk cow. But the selfish king can never be satiated, and Mestra begins to question her role in this dubious cause. How much of herself can she give? Is there a limit to what the king will take?
In this beautiful, small, giftable edition, Miller's adept prose and cunning reworking of legend is once more on sparkling display. --Julia Kastner, blogger at pagesofjulia