Mr. Banville has gambled that he could write a mesmerizing tale about a monster - and he has won.

Its reissue is cause for rejoicing because it brings to a wider audience a mesmerizing tale that combines traditions of African and African-American story-telling with a keen understanding of biological and evolutionary imperatives.

It was a mesmerizing tale.

First published in 1980, this mesmerizing tale combines traditions of African and African-American storytelling with a keen understanding of biological and evolutionary imperatives.

How this determined young woman overcame these apparently extreme deficiencies and danced her way into history is a mesmerizing tale of body and soul outwitting gravity and that somewhat more horizontal pull: the male gaze.

In late 1927, Burns published Tombstone, An Iliad of the Southwest, a mesmerizing tale "of blood and thunder", that christened Earp as the "Lion of Tombstone".

Amy Tan manages to get away with this, although it is irritating each time she insists on bringing us back from Winnie's mesmerizing tale.

In a further parallel, Walser soon withdraws into the background and becomes a mere commentator as Fevvers and Lizzie take the reins as the narrators of their own mesmerizing tale.

"The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky" is a mesmerizing tale of family crisis, mental illness and unfulfilled promise.