Published 28/08/2025 | Hardback,
Description:
The International Bestseller’Just stellar – extreme, uncanny and beautifully controlled’ – Anne Enright, author of The Wren, The Wren’These stories are perfect for the times we dwell inside’ – Colum McCann, author of ApeirogonThe strange and explosive new collection from the incomparable imagination of Samanta Schweblin, a master of the short story. A gripping blend of the raw, the astonishing and the tragic, every story is as perfectly unexpected as a snare: tightly, exquisitely wound, ready to snap at a touch.
Here, a young father is haunted by the consequences of a moment of distraction; tragedy is complicated by the inexplicable appearance of an injured horse; an attempted poisoning leads two writers to startling conclusions; a lonely woman’s charity is rewarded with home-invasion. And in the shocking opening story, a mother surfaces from the depths of the lake behind her house, where she saw something awful yet alluring.
Guilt, grief and relationships severed permeate this mesmerizing collection – but so do unspeakable bonds of family, love and longing, each sinister and beautiful. Step by step these unnerving stories lure us into the shadows to confront the monsters of everyday life – ourselves.
‘No one writes like Samanta Schweblin’ – Lorrie Moore, author of I Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain
The mysterious case of the Alperton Angels
The Heroines : The instant Sunday Times bestseller
The Square of Sevens
Queer Square Mile : Queer Short Stories from Wales
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Fling : the must read rom-com for fans of Marian Keyes and Beth O'Leary
The Poison Machine
Red Queen : The Award-winning Bestselling Thriller That Has Taken the World by Storm
A Wild & True Relation : A 'remarkable' (Hilary Mantel) feminist adventure story of smuggling and myth-making
The White Octopus Hotel
Hungry Ghosts : A BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick - and 'an early contender for the Booker' (The Times)
A Bitter Remedy : A totally compelling historical mystery
The Scandalous Life of Ruby Devereaux : A brand-new for 2024 evocative and exhilarating faux-memoir that you will fall in love with
What July Knew : If you liked ELIZABETH IS MISSING, you'll LOVE this
The New Life : a Granta Best of Young British Novelist 2023


