"Cabin on the Coast" talks about a couple in love, about magical people and the dangers of transactions with them. But first of all, this is a story about love. The story plays on Celtic legends - with an ending in the spirit of "The Twilight Zone" (it is possible that after reading it, you will want to re-read the story again - and in the case of Wolfe, you will be right to do so).

Let me tell you about the reader for whom I wrote all these stories. I wrote them for you. Not for some professor or for himself, and certainly not for the editors who bought them (often reluctantly) after several other editors had rejected them. You see, I'm not an academic who writes to be criticized. (Academics quite wrongly consider criticism to be the most important part of the whole process.) Nor am I one of those self-indulgent people who write in order to be admired for their wit later; I sometimes admire myself, but later I always have to regret it. (...) I'm also not one of those commercial writers who pander to editors in hopes of making a ton of money. There are easier ways to do this. (...) The simple truth is this: today you and I, along with billions of other people, sit telling stories around the fire we call “the sun”, and from time to time it is my turn to entertain the others. (...) Knowing, as you know, what it means to love and lose love, you may appreciate "Cabin on the Coast." Gene Wolfe

Contents• Preface to the collection "Endangered Species" (added as a bonus )• Cabin on the coast (the story itself and the author’s note)• Additional materials to help the reader: - Translator’s notes (for those who like to read footnotes and who thought there weren’t enough of them) - Article by Mark Aramini with a brief analysis of the story (possibly , will help you look differently at the story or at some details) - Irish legends about the Good People - Irish saga “The Disappearance of Condla the Beautiful, son of Cond of Hundred Battles” (translation by Alexander Smirnov)