"Am I walking toward something I should be running away from?" — Shirley Jackson
A woman returns home to revisit an encounter with the numinous; couples take up residence in houses full of sinister secrets; a man fleeing a failed marriage discovers something ancient and unknowable in rural Ireland . . .
In her introduction, Lisa Tuttle observes that “certain places are doomed, dangerous in some inexplicable, metaphysical way”, and the characters in these stories all seem drawn in their own ways to just such places, whether trying to return home or endeavouring to get as far from life as possible. These nine stories by Shirley Jackson Award winner Lynda E. Rucker tell tales of those lost and searching, often for something they cannot name, and encountering along the way the uncanny embedded in the everyday world.
Contents
"Haunted Places, Haunted People" by Lisa Tuttle
"The Receiver of Tales"
"Widdershins"
"The House on Cobb Street"
"Where the Summer Dwells"
"Who Is This Who Is Coming?"
"The Queen in the Yellow Wallpaper"
"The Wife's Lament"
"This Time of Day, This Time of Year"
"The Haunting House"
"Story Notes"
"Acknowledgements"
Lynda E. Rucker is an American writer born and raised in the South and now living in Europe. Her stories have appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies. She is a regular columnist for Black Static, has had a short play produced on London’s West End, and won the 2015 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Short Story. Her first collection, The Moon Will Look Strange, was published by Karoshi Books in 2013.
