Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell

by Nathan Ballingrud Narrated by Corey Brill, Danny Campbell, Matthew Lloyd Davies, Rebekkah Ross, Jacques Roy

Overview

“Stretch[es] the boundaries of the genre...It's horrifying, but there's beauty.” -The New York Times
“One of the field's most accomplished short story writers.” -The Washington Post

A gripping collection of six stories of terror-including the novella “The Visible Filth,” the basis for the upcoming major motion picture-by Shirley Jackson Award-winning author Nathan Ballingrud, hailed as a major new voice by Jeff VanderMeer, Paul Tremblay, and Carmen Maria Machado-“one of the most heavyweight horror authors out there” (The Verge).

In his first collection, North American Lake Monsters, Nathan Ballingrud carved out a distinctly singular place in American fiction with his “piercing and merciless” (Toronto Globe and Mail) portrayals of the monsters that haunt our lives-both real and imagined: “What Nathan Ballingrud does in North American Lake Monsters is to reinvigorate the horror tradition” (Los Angeles Review of Books).

Now, in Wounds, Ballingrud follows up with an even more confounding, strange, and utterly entrancing collection of six stories, including one new novella. From the eerie dread descending upon a New Orleans dive bartender after a cell phone is left behind in a rollicking bar fight in “The Visible Filth” to the search for the map of hell in “The Butcher's Table,” Ballingrud's beautifully crafted stories are riveting in their quietly terrifying depictions of the murky line between the known and the unknown.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 03/11/2019

Ballingrud (North American Lake Monsters) offers six skillfully created, deeply disturbing stories in this collection of the uncanny. In “The Butcher’s Table,” original to this volume, a 19th-century ship bears diabolist Martin Dunwood of the Candlelight Society and his bodyguard, Rufus Gully, on a journey to the borders of hell. The title is the name of the ship, and also refers to the sacrifices Dunwood and Gully’s fellow Satanists plan to offer upon arrival—if they can evade supernatural pursuit and survive infighting long enough to reach their destination. “The Diabolist,” a short, sharp, nasty story of metaphysics and monstrous relationships, is a standout. “The Visible Filth,” the basis for the forthcoming film Wounds, is a contemporary tale of a slowly creeping, inevitable surrender to horrors discovered via a forgotten cellphone in a New Orleans bar. “The Maw” is an even darker vision of a metropolitan area lost to unnatural denizens. Ballingrud occasionally includes horrific actions simply for their own sake, which may frustrate readers looking for deeper meanings, but his evocative and strangely beautiful descriptions of the grotesque and terrible are sure to linger long after they are read. (Apr.)

Aurealis

Ballingrud writes darkness with such allure.

Washington Post

Best Horror Fiction of the Year selection

Victor LaValle

Nathan Ballingrud is one of my favorite contemporary authors and any time he’s got a new book out I run to the front of the line. His work is elegant and troublingly, wonderfully disturbing.

Winnipeg Free Press

"Ballingrud has secured his place as a formidable voice and talent. A wonderfully disturbing delight."

Paul Tremblay

Nathan Ballingrud's brilliant fiction brims with imagination, integrity (I do not use that term lightly), and an authentic world-weary dread that bores directly into your heart. With Wounds you'll gladly follow Nathan to Hell and (maybe) back."

From the Publisher

Stretch[es] the boundaries of the genre by employing these grand, horrific worlds. “The Butcher’s Table” reminds me of the first time I read Clive Barker’s “In the Hills, the Cities.” It’s horrifying, but there’s beauty."—The New York Times

"In only two slender collections, Nathan Ballingrud has emerged as one of the field’s most accomplished short story writers.”—The Washington Post

-- Paul Tremblay

Nathan Ballingrud's brilliant fiction brims with imagination, integrity (I do not use that term lightly), and an authentic world-weary dread that bores directly into your heart. With Wounds you'll gladly follow Nathan to Hell and (maybe) back."

-- Victor LaValle

Nathan Ballingrud is one of my favorite contemporary authors and any time he’s got a new book out I run to the front of the line. His work is elegant and troublingly, wonderfully disturbing.

Washington Post

Best Horror Fiction of the Year selection

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171150808
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	04/09/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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