A Natural History of Hell

A Natural History of Hell is a collection of thirteen stories written by Jeffrey Ford and released in July 2016.[1] The collection has won the 2017 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection[2] as well as the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Single-Author Short Story Collection.[3]

A Natural History of Hell
AuthorJeffrey Ford
LanguageEnglish
GenreShort Fiction
PublisherSmall Beer Press
Publication date
12 July 2016
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePaperback
Pages279 pp
ISBN978-1-61873-118-0

Author

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Jeffrey Ford is an American fantasy, science fiction, and mystery writer, born in Long Island, New York State on 8 November 1955.[4] He now lives in Ohio and teaches writing part-time at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Contents

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  • The Blameless: A world where exorcisms are as casual as a sweet sixteen
  • Word Doll: A take on the harvest spirit/monster theme
  • The Angel Seems: A town suffers the predations of a monstrous angel who offers protection in exchange for occasional poetic and indifferent murder.
  • Mount Chary Galore: A bone-chilling story of three young children in a more innocent, more difficult time, and their encounter with the local wise woman.
  • A Natural History of Autumn: Evil Japanese demons and their wild shenanigans.
  • Blood Drive: A re-imagined America encourages both high school students and teachers carry firearms
  • A Terror: Emily Dickinson takes that famed carriage ride with Death.
  • Rocket Ship to Hell: A science fiction writer meets an old man in a bar who spins a truly "weird tale"
  • The Fairy Enterprise: A heartless industrialist determines to manufacture an unusual sort of product, but finds the process unexpectedly demanding.
  • The Last Triangle: An addict is rescued by a little old lady.
  • Spirits of Salt: A Tale of the Coral Heart
  • The Thyme Fiend: A young in Ohio who sees strange things. The spirits of the dead come back to resolve some mysteries in the living world.
  • The Prelate's Commission: A story about trying to put a face on the devil and how the devil feels about such efforts.

References

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