Another deluxe edition of new writing and neglected perspectives. Asian ghosts and supernatural beings – from India to Sri Lanka, China to Korea, Japan to the Philippines – can be both terrifying and comforting. Underpinned by strong cultural beliefs in the cycles of life and ancestor worship, the nature of Asian spirits differs from that of their counterparts in other areas of the world. The possibility is more instinctually accepted that ghosts remain with us, as part of the world, whether we can see them or not.
Featured here are all kinds of stories from across East, South and Southeast Asia: classic weird tales by the likes of Pu Songling, Rabindranath Tagore, S Mukerji, Im Bang and Yi Ruk, Lafcadio Hearn and Yei Theodora Ozaki, are complemented by stories by Asian writers of today. An egui (the Chinese version of a 'hungry ghost') is exorcised, a vicious jiangshi (Chinese zombie-like revenant) is encountered in the night, a Bengali shakchunni (the ghost of an unsatisfied bride) poignantly seeks love with devastating effect, a family is haunted by vengeful Korean gwishin, and the iconic Japanese tragedies of Oiwa and O-Kiku are revisited.
New, contemporary and notable writers featured are: Joshua Bartolome, Eliza Chan, the late Eugie Foster, T.M. Hurree, Nur Nasreen Ibrahim, Frances Lu-Pai Ippolito, K.P. Kulski, Monte Lin, Usman T. Malik, Samuel Marzioli, Rena Mason, Lena Ng, Ayida Shonibar, Karen Tay, Emily Teng, Yilin Wang, Alda Yuan, Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum (translating Ji Yun).
The Flame Tree Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories, the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.
K. Hari Kumar is an Indian screenwriter and bestselling author of horror novels and short stories. His 2019 collection India’s Most Haunted was listed among HarperCollins India’s 100 best books written by Indian writers and his 2018 psychological thriller, The Other Side of Her, spawned the acclaimed Hindi language web series called Bhram (2019).
Dr Luo Hui is a senior lecturer in the School of Languages & Cultures at Victoria University of Wellington. His PhD thesis from the University of Toronto delved into Pu Songling’s ghost stories, he has recorded on Chinese ghost tales for BBC Radio 4, and his creative nonfiction appeared in the Asian/New Zealand anthology A Clear Dawn (2021).
Lee Murray is from Aotearoa-New Zealand and is a Shirley Jackson Award and five-time Bram Stoker Award winner with more than forty titles to her credit. Murray holds a Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction and is an Honorary Literary Fellow of the New Zealand Society of Authors.
