Book: Daydreams of Angels

In Daydreams of Angels, O’Neill’s first collection of short stories, she gives free rein to her imaginative gifts. In “The Ugly Ducklings,” generations of Nureyev clones live out their lives in a grand Soviet experiment. In “Dear Piglet,” a teenaged cult follower writes a letter to explain the motivation behind her crime. And in another tale, a grandmother reveals where babies come from: the beach, where young mothers-to-be hunt for infants in the surf. Each of these beguiling stories twists the beloved narratives of childhood — fairy tales, storybooks, Bible stories — to uncover the deepest truths of family life.