Tender and bittersweet, these stories by Truman Capote, the author of Breakfast at Tiffany's,are a captivating tribute to the Christmas season'We set about choosing a tree. "It should be," muses my friend, "twice as tall as a boy. So a boy can't steal the star."'Selected from across Truman Capote's writing life, these Christmas stories range from nostalgic, semi-autobiographical portraits of childhood to more unsettling tales of darkness beneath the festive glitter. In the Deep South of Capote's youth, a young boy, Buddy, and his beloved maiden 'aunt' Sook forage for pecans and whiskey to bake into fruitcakes, make kites - too broke to buy gifts - and rise before dawn to prepare feasts for a ragged assembly of guests; while in other stories, a lonely woman has a troubling encounter in wintry New York and an unlikely festive miracle, of sorts, occurs at a local drugstore.Brimming with feeling, these sparkling tales convey both the wonder and the chill of Christmas time.

Tender and bittersweet, these stories by Truman Capote, the author of Breakfast at Tiffany's,are a captivating tribute to the Christmas season'We set about choosing a tree. "It should be," muses my friend, "twice as tall as a boy. So a boy can't steal the star."'Selected from across Truman Capote's writing life, these Christmas stories range from nostalgic, semi-autobiographical portraits of childhood to more unsettling tales of darkness beneath the festive glitter. In the Deep South of Capote's youth, a young boy, Buddy, and his beloved maiden 'aunt' Sook forage for pecans and whiskey to bake into fruitcakes, make kites - too broke to buy gifts - and rise before dawn to prepare feasts for a ragged assembly of guests; while in other stories, a lonely woman has a troubling encounter in wintry New York and an unlikely festive miracle, of sorts, occurs at a local drugstore.Brimming with feeling, these sparkling tales convey both the wonder and the chill of Christmas time.