Guest host Neil Gaiman introduces two tales of illusion.

The new season of SELECTED SHORTS begins with a program focusing on the mystery and allure of objects. In Steven Millhauser’s “In the Reign of Harad IV” a court miniaturist longs to create smaller and smaller worlds.  Millhauser has commented on the fact that he moved from novels to short fiction—a reverse of the usual trend for authors—saying, “it’s as if the novel were a kind of preparation for the rigorous pleasures of the shorter form. For me, the shortness of a great story is part of its greatness.”