The Tree Is My Hat

Publication(s)

• First publication
  • 999, 1999
• Wolfe collection(s)
  • Innocents Aboard (2004)
  • The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
• Other anthologies
  • The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Thirteenth Annual Collection, 2000
• Radio play (available online)

Wolfe's comments from the Introduction to Innocents Aboard

"Let's see... Perhaps I should tell you that 'The Tree Is My Hat' was done as a radio play at the World Horror Convention; Neil Gaiman played Reverend Robbins, and I'm proud of that."

Summary

A man recovering from a malaria-like illness is recuperating on a tropical island, where he meets a shark-god in human form.

Analysis

• Hanga the Shark God appears again in Wolfe's novel An Evil Guest.

Unresolved Questions

• Was it A or was it B, or was it X or Z?
• Was it he or was it she, or was it you or me?
• Who dunnit?
• Did the Star Child really start WWIII at the end of 2001?

< Introduction | Innocents Aboard | The Old Woman Whose Rolling Pin Is the Sun >