It’s our business to hand you lies, though not the malicious kind. The fiction within these pages is stitched together with some of the most inventive lies we’ve ever encountered. And this doesn’t mean that the stories border on absurd, with extraordinary creatures soaring through the air. These fabrications could easily pass for real life. Perhaps their proximity to truth is part of the allure. Each story offers a new twist on a real-life situation, whether it’s grappling with faith, disappearing in a foreign country, or meeting a stranger at a highway motel. In a series of interviews, you’ll also discover how some of today’s most brilliant literary heroes forged careers out of lies and make-believe. Rather than pitting one author’s world of make-believe against another, we hope that this issue leads you to think about all of the possibilities that exist on the written page.
