TALES FROM BEYOND THE RAINBOW

Ten traditional stories from world cultures brought into the present through a queer lens.

Royalty, heroes, and simple folk facing momentous odds—these are some of the roles populated by LGBTQ+ characters in this collection of adapted folklore. Within the tales, readers encounter a trans woman in the Dahomey Kingdom who works in a market stall, a Romanian princess who takes on the guise of a boy to honor her father’s promise, and two gender-nonconforming Chinese male lovers who seek justice. Drawing upon folkloric research, Wood has created a well-researched and well-adapted collection from a broad variety of locations, including Canada, the Cape Verde Islands, India, Denmark, and more; although three of the five non-Western tales cite old collections gathered by cultural outsiders, Wood “worked with authenticity readers from around the world.” By altering the stories’ presentations and some of their wording, Wood seeks the “reclamation and reinterpretation” of queer identities. Some of the changes validate characters’ moments of honest love, describe euphoria connected to affirming one’s gender, or honor chosen pronouns and names; others eliminate discriminatory language or eschew physical transformation in favor of emotional acceptance. Each tale includes a black-and-white centerpiece illustration by an artist whose heritage matches the story’s origin; the beautifully varied artwork stylishly evokes the stories’ protagonists.

A creative and insightful achievement in folktale adaptation.