Masterfully turning the rules of folklore and fable on their head, The Bridegroom Was a Dog is a disarming and unforgettable modern classic.

Its initial publication in 1998 garnered admiration from The New Yorker, which praised it as a "fast-moving, mysteriously compelling tale that has the dream quality of Kafka.

"The Bridegroom Was a Dog begins with a schoolteacher telling a fable to her students. In the fable, a princess promises her hand in marriage to a dog that has licked her bottom clean.

The story takes an even stranger twist when that very dog appears to the schoolteacher in real life as a doglike man.

A romantic and sexual courtship develops, much to the chagrin of her friends, who have suspicions about the man's identity.