My New Favourite Book of the Weird

I must tell you about this brilliant book I got for Christmas. Edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer its called The Weird: A Compendium of Strange & Dark Stories. Here’s what it says on Jeff’s entry on his site:

‘Over one hundred years of weird fiction collected in a single volume of 750,000 words. Over 20 nationalities are represented and seven new translations were commissioned for the book, most notably definitive translations of Julio Cortazar’s “Axolotl” and Michel Bernanos’ short novel “The Other Side of the Mountain” (the first translations of these classics in many decades). Other highlights include the short novels / long novellas “The Beak Doctor” by Eric Basso, “Tainaron” by Leena Krohn, and “The Brotherhood of Mutilation” by Brian Evenson. This is among the largest collections of weird fiction ever housed between the covers of one book.’

Alongside well loved spooky story writers such as MR James, Robert Aickman and HP Lovecraft there’s Kafka, Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘Don’t Look Now’, Haruki Murakami, Poppy Z Brite, Hagiwara Sakutaro, Saki, Neil Gaiman and plenty more. Enjoy!

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