THE DOOR IN THE AIR

From the inventive New Zealander, nine splendid stories—fantastic, funny, satiric, and philosophical in turn, but always allusive, thought-provoking, grounded in fey common-sense (even wizards have compost heaps), and uniquely hers. A dancer, tricked into a wolf-infested forest, turns tables by teaching the wolves to dance. A woman bakes a birthday cake that is hilariously adulated as an objet d'art by the artistic establishment: "My dear, it's got such passionate equilibrium." A bridge-builder, whose constructions grow increasingly fantastical and metaphorical ("People are all . . .creatures of two sides with a chasm in between"), in the end becomes a bridge himself when his son speaks a single magical word and "closes the chasm." A girl in love, mesmerized by the knowledge and artistry of a wizard in a tower, eventually gives up her love to accept her role as the wizard's successor. Again and again, Mahy explores the meaning of the creative life, finding it perilous but sustaining. Rich treasure. (Short stories. YA+)