Magic Terror - Softcover

Straub, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007109903 ISBN 13: 9780007109906

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2001

Synopsis

A new collection of short stories from the acclaimed author of the bestselling Mr X and The Talisman.

No one tells a story like Peter Straub. He dazzles with the complexity of his plots and the eloquence of his prose. He startles you into laughter in the face of events so dark you begin to question your own moral compass. Then he reduces you to jelly by spinning a tale so terrifying – and surprising – you wind up sleeping with the lights on. With Magic Terror, his first collection since the acclaimed Houses Without Doors, he has given us one of the most imaginatively unsettling collections in years.

The terrain of these extraordinary stories is marked by brutality, heartbreak, despair, wonder and an unexpected humour. ‘Bunny Is Good Bread’ takes us into the mind of a small boy trapped in grotesque circumstances to portray the creation of a serial killer. ‘Hunger, an Introduction’, narrated by the ghost of a pompous, self-pitying murderer, evokes a profoundly beautiful vision of earthly life, one appreciated far more by the dead than the living. While the award-winning novella ‘Mr Clubb and Mr Cuff’, a masterpiece of black comedy, is a revenge tale in which torture is a moral art and the revenger undergoes a transforming, albeit painful, education.

In the words of Mrs Asch, the narrator of ‘Ashputtle’, ‘the main feature of adventure is that it goes forward into unknown country.’ Straub’s devotees will be entranced by what their fearless guide has in store for them. Those as yet uninitiated are in for a harrowing literary journey.

About this title

About the Author

Born in Milwaukee, Peter Straub is the author of fourteen novels. He has won the British Fantasy Award, two Bram Stoker awards and two World Fantasy awards. He is currently at work, with Stephen King, on a sequel to their bestselling novel, The Talisman.

From the Back Cover

No one tells a story like Peter Straub. He dazzles with the complexity of his plots and the eloquence of his prose. He startles you into laughter in the face of events so dark you begin to question your own moral compass. Then he reduces you to jelly by spinning a tale so terrifying – and surprising – you wind up sleeping with the lights on. With Magic Terror, his first collection since the acclaimed Houses Without Doors, he has given us one of the most imaginatively unsettling collections in years.

The terrain of these extraordinary stories is marked by brutality, heartbreak, despair, wonder and an unexpected humour. ‘Bunny Is Good Bread’ takes us into the mind of a small boy trapped in grotesque circumstances to portray the creation of a serial killer. ‘Hunger, an Introduction’, narrated by the ghost of a pompous, self-pitying murderer, evokes a profoundly beautiful vision of earthly life, one appreciated far more by the dead than the living. While the award-winning novella ‘Mr Clubb and Mr Cuff’, a masterpiece of black comedy, is a revenge tale in which torture is a moral art and the revenger undergoes a transforming, albeit painful, education.
In the words of Mrs Asch, the narrator of ‘Ashputtle’, ‘the main feature of adventure is that it goes forward into unknown country.’ Straub’s devotees will be entranced by what their fearless guide has in store for them. Those as yet uninitiated are in for a harrowing literary journey.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0007109903
• ISBN 13: 9780007109906
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352