Enchanted Night: A Novella

One hot summer night in a small town in southern Connecticut, while the tide is still going out, Laura Engstrom, fourteen years old, is awakened by the moon streaming in her bedroom window. She isn't the only one to be disturbed by the rising moon. All across town, dreamers are awakening, throwing off the covers. A sequence of short chapters, each a tiny story in itself, introduces the reader to the restless inhabitants of an apparently idyllic American town. Strange children, petty crooks, thwarted lovers and simple insomniacs stalk the pages of this enchanting short novel, building restlessly to an uneasy climax. Millhauser at his most imaginative and most lyrical, Enchanted Night is full of darkling menace. This is a novel to be read late at night, in one sitting, preferably with the light on.