Please note that this title is now out of print.

Darkscapes

by

Anne-Sylvie Salzman

 

Translated by William Charlton

 

The fifteen stories of Darkscapes, Anne-Sylvie Salzman’s new collection in English, superbly translated from the French by William Charlton, explore the horror in life, the beauty in strangeness. Despite the diverse settings of Salzman’s stories, their inhabitants share an affinity with the unusual, the dislocated and the other.

 

Hikers in the Scottish Highlands, a working-girl in Tokyo, boy scouts on a country adventure, drifting students, prowling beasts, makers of glass eyes, inhabit the farthest reaches of the imagination—be it the dying gleam of a lingering dusk, cannibalism in a Parisian park, or the tremor of a snipe’s feathers. Salzman/Charlton’s prose, precise and subtle, leads readers willingly into the heart of darkness.

 

Contains: Lost Girls: ‘Child of Evil Stars’, ‘Fox into Lady’, ‘The Old Towpath’, ‘The Opening’, ‘Meannanaich’. Crucifixions: ‘Passing Forms’, ‘Under the Lighthouse’, ‘Pan’s Children’, ‘Brunel’s Invention’, ‘Shioge’. The Story of Margaret: ‘What the Eye Remembers’, ‘The Hand that Sees’. Wildlife: ‘Hilda’, ‘Lamont’, ‘Feral’. Bibliography. Acknowledgements.

 

Anne-Sylvie Salzman (aka Anne-Sylvie Homassel) is a Paris-based writer and translator. She co-directs Le Visage Vert, a literary magazine and small press devoted to supernatural fiction. She is the author of Sommeil (José Corti), Au bord d’un lent fleuve noir (Joëlle Losfeld) and Lamont (Le Visage vert). Amongst other novels and collections, she translated Max Beerbohm’s Seven Men, Lord Dunsany’s The Sword of Welleran, Ernest Bramah’s Max Carrados and Arthur Machen’s Three Impostors—and some of W.S. Graham’s poetry, feats she is inanely proud of. She is currently working on a science-fiction novel.

 

Reviews

'...a collection whose worth far outweighs the occasional note of vagueness ... hopefully Salzman’s reputation as a unique voice will be solidly established on the weird fiction map as a result.' Peter Tennant, "Case Notes", Black Static

'An outstanding collection and an essential book for all serious readers of dark and fantastic fiction. Not to be missed under any circumstances!' Rick Kleffel at The Agony Column

'Salzman displays a vivid imagination, a knack for the weird and the fantastic, and a very elegant prose.' Mario Guslandi, British Fantasy Society

'Salzman shows skill at exposing the troubled psyches of her characters as they grapple with their weird realities, notably in "The Old Towpath" and "Feral", whose heroines are drawn to forbidden locales that provoke dark imaginings. Though explanations are not always forthcoming for these tales’ bizarre moments, their mix of strange people and strange incidents will interest readers with a taste for uncanny fiction.' Publishers Weekly

'Salzman’s subjects are sinister rather than brutal, and often push dark psychology into the territory of fantasy or surrealism . . . .they are highly effective, albeit occasionally vague, and a really attractive addition to contemporary dark and fantastic literature.' Paul St John Mackintosh, Telereads

"Darkscapes lives up to its name. Gothic, horrific, bordering on the twilight realm between nightmare and reality, the writing shares some style with classic writers like Edgar Allan Poe. . . . Salzman has terrifyingly beautiful prose. . . ." Aurealis #134

The author is interviewed by Telereads here.

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