I heard of this book through the DVD commentary of the film "Candy," with Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish. The writer planted The Robber Bridegroom on Ledger's character's nightstand, which I never would have noticed on my own. The film mention piqued my curiosity, and honestly I'm amazed that I hadn't read any Eudora Welty up till now.

The novel is loosely inspired by the German fairytale collected by the Brothers Grimm and contains all the classic elements of great storytelling - mistaken identities, larger-than-life characters, a cruel and jealous stepmother, beauty and horror, sex and violence. Except this story turns each device on its head so that nothing is truly clear-cut and predictable. Welty's writing is breathtaking, visual and visceral in its descriptions, eerie and haunting and seductive all at once. The ending feels a bit abrupt, but overall it's an elegantly twisted, delightfully perverse fairytale.