'“Davenport reaches back in time and across cultures with the ease of an angler whose every languorous catch is a catch.” —The New York Times   “Fine writing and fresh perceptions are the mutually shared joys of Guy Davenport’s fiction. Reading it is a life experience.” —The Washington Post Book World   “He dams progress and upholds the ethics of eternal return with a passion reminiscent of Borges and Bioy Casares. . . . Exotic, erotic, outrageous.” —Los Angeles Times   “Davenport . . . brings together his talents as poet, critic, philosopher, classical scholar, and naturalist in nine dazzling fictions that answer, in a marvelously learned voice, Pound’s dictum to ‘make it new.’ Innovation here derives from the artful recombination of received forms—an awe-inspiring collage of classical learning, botanical fact, linguistic insight, and historical vision.” —Kirkus Reviews'