These Things That Walk Behind Me
SKU:
9781590217658
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An October 2024 release!
by David Surface
with an introduction by John Langan
So strange stories, yes, and dark, too. Stories with fine prose and sympathetically drawn characters give them an emotional heft and resonance not always found in this fiction stripe. Stories that follow you. Stories that cannot be easily forgotten because they haunt you.
Paperback
Cover and interior design by Ryan Vance
"What makes these stories so powerful is Surface's commitment to the realistic and the strange, and his understanding that they are adjacent and intertwined. These are nimble and satisfying stories that take the best qualities of literature and genre to create a creature that is its own dark thing." - Brian Evenson, author of A Collapse of Horses
"This is one of the best collections I have read in many years—possibly ever." - Stephen Volk, author of Ghostwatch
"David Surface’s stories are organic and unstoppable, an itch that has to be scratched, and it’s more than an itch, something other, and you’re not quite sure what it is, but it’s growing, possibly in response to your attention, but you can’t stop scratching, no matter how hard you try to ignore the change arising from within, and your complicity in what is about to happen. Simply put, these are horrifically beautiful stories. Savor them." - Eric Schaller, author of Voice of the Stranger
“In These Things That Walk Behind Me, David Surface gathers dark and haunting tales that explore the thin line between nightmares and daydreams. From unsettling encounters with the past to eerie whispers of otherworldly beings, each story lingers with a sense of dread and anticipation. A chilling exhibition you won’t want to miss.” - Christopher Barzak, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of Before and Afterlives
"What Surface does really well in these stories is create ordinary-seeming worlds where an overwhelming sense of wrongness slowly drifts up from deep below. That unnerving quality intensifies as the stories move forward, until it becomes almost unbearable. The themes of the stories--grief and loss, growing up, trauma, mental illness, feelings of powerlessness--are so strong and clear that they often threaten to send the stories into the realm of allegory. However, the specificity of the worlds that Surface creates always succeeds in anchoring the stories to their own strange little realities." - Rowan Lee for the Harvest Maid's Revenge
"This is one of the best collections I have read in many years—possibly ever." - Stephen Volk, author of Ghostwatch
"David Surface’s stories are organic and unstoppable, an itch that has to be scratched, and it’s more than an itch, something other, and you’re not quite sure what it is, but it’s growing, possibly in response to your attention, but you can’t stop scratching, no matter how hard you try to ignore the change arising from within, and your complicity in what is about to happen. Simply put, these are horrifically beautiful stories. Savor them." - Eric Schaller, author of Voice of the Stranger
“In These Things That Walk Behind Me, David Surface gathers dark and haunting tales that explore the thin line between nightmares and daydreams. From unsettling encounters with the past to eerie whispers of otherworldly beings, each story lingers with a sense of dread and anticipation. A chilling exhibition you won’t want to miss.” - Christopher Barzak, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of Before and Afterlives
"What Surface does really well in these stories is create ordinary-seeming worlds where an overwhelming sense of wrongness slowly drifts up from deep below. That unnerving quality intensifies as the stories move forward, until it becomes almost unbearable. The themes of the stories--grief and loss, growing up, trauma, mental illness, feelings of powerlessness--are so strong and clear that they often threaten to send the stories into the realm of allegory. However, the specificity of the worlds that Surface creates always succeeds in anchoring the stories to their own strange little realities." - Rowan Lee for the Harvest Maid's Revenge