pstrongFaber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles./strong/ppLips the colour of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like guilt, and guilt, and guilt: these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom./ppBut what emis/em the ninth kingdom? she asks a kind-seeming lady in her carriage. It is the kingdom of the frozen will, comes the reply. There is no going back./ppSylvia Plaths strange, dark tale of independence over infanticide, written not long after she herself left home, grapples with mortality in motion./p