Publisher's Synopsis
Set against a grim backdrop of Rustbelt decay and dry northern forests still scarred from centuries-old fires, the weird tales of Vourdalak & Other Stories interrogate the phenomena of living damnation. What forces converge upon a lost soul - or within it - to motivate the perverse perseverances of human interaction? Why do certain energetic bodies seek out contact with others, even when harm has long since become the only potential outcome of such troublesome synergies? Similarly, the gothic romance of The Man Who Cast No Shadow finds a newly married couple deeply in love but physically separated. Mired in their own separate struggles to learn and evolve but joined through letters and dreams, if these spouses are ever to reunite alive, they must each learn on their own - and yet, somehow, from each other as well - of independence and interdependence, of the communion of souls and the limitations of the body that both shape human existence. These stories draw from histories of privilege and oppression, the language and symbols of Inquisitorial documents and depth psychology, from trauma theory and grimoires of dark magic.
