Derek McCormack's most compelling work yet is his second selection in Dennis Cooper's groundbreaking Little House on the Bowery fiction series. “[Derek McCormack is] a whiz at fashion and other often-freaky stuff that the popular imagination latches onto . . .” —Toronto Star McCormack begins his quirky Tod Browning–inspired tale with a disclaimer: “This book is a work of fiction. It is a parody. It is a phantasmagoria . . . Elsa Schiaparelli was never a vampire. Shocking! by Schiaparelli never contained blood.” The work of Schiaparelli, a 1930s Italian fashion designer, was influenced by Surrealist Salvador Dalí, and the same spirit permeates The Show that Smells, which is set in a maze of mirrors. Schiaparelli dresses introduced playfulness and a sense of “anything goes” to the fashion industry. She branched into perfume and became designer to a number of film stars. In addition to Schiaparelli, this tale is about Jimmie Rodgers, a country music–singer dying of tuberculosis, and his wife, Carrie, who tries to save him by selling her soul to a devil who designs haute couture clothing. Starring a host of Hollywood’s brightest stars, including Schiaparelli’s real-life rival Coco Chanel, character actor Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, and the Carter Family (as red state vampire hunters, no less), The Show that Smells is a thrilling tale of hillbillies, high fashion, and horror. An invitation to adults to make-believe, it is sure to please fashion connoisseurs, fans of classic and cult cinema, and freaks everywhere. In McCormack’s world, the power of death can be bottled and sold, and it certainly smells.

Dennis Cooper unveils a mesmerizing debut story collection for his Little House on the Bowery fiction series. “[A] provocative and refreshing debut collection.” —Publishers Weekly “Praise seems superfluous for a book as accomplished, cohesive, and devastating as Lonely Christopher’s debut collection, so consider these words admiration instead, and admonishment: if you still think fiction counts for anything, then you should buy this book right now.” —Dale Peck, author of What We Lost and Time To Say Goodbye A selection of Dennis Cooper’s Little House on the Bowery series. Two boys lie on a bed, one of them is already dead; they listen to Glenn Gould playing Bach and talk about suicide and love. A lonely narrator mourns the end of a relationship and the disappearance of a mysterious object as a frustrated artist jumps out of a moving car on his birthday and runs for the last streetlamp in the universe. Awkward parents and angsty teens negotiate a dark suburban landscape, searching for something they can’t name, spelling out balletic sentences of failure and shame. Helicopters menace the night sky, a horse is murdered in a kitchen, victims go missing in swamps of ambiguity, and everybody waits for what the construction of a new road into town will bring: the end of the world or something worse. The Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse, a radical map of shortcomings in our daily experiences in the form of a debut story collection, presents thematically related windows into serious emotional trouble and monstrous love. Lonely Christopher combines a striking emotional grammar with an unyielding imagination in the lovely-ugly architecture of his stories.

Composed in brief paragraphs and structured as a series of vignettes, pieces of fiction and autobiography, The Late Work of Margaret Kroftis creates a world in which a woman's life is refracted through dreamlike logic. Margaret Kroftis is a writer, living alone. As she experiences a personal tragedy, the narrative moves forward in an emotionally coherent manner that exists separately from linear time. A groundbreaking debut from a truly talented new writer.

The year's best, and darkest, tales of terror, showcasing the most outstanding new short stories and novellas by both contemporary masters of the macabre and exciting newcomers. As ever, this acclaimed anthology also offers the most comprehensive annual overview of horror around the world in all its incarnations; a comprehensive necrology of famous names; and a list of indispensable contact addresses for the dedicated horror fan and writer alike. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror remains the world's leading annual anthology dedicated solely to presenting the best in contemporary horror fiction. Praise for Stephen Jones: 'The best horror anthologist in the business is, of course, Stephen Jones, whose Mammoth Book of Best New Horror is one of the major bargains of this as of any other year.' Roz Kavaney 'An essential volume for horror readers.' Locus 'Stephen Jones . . . has a better sense of the genre than almost anyone in this country.' Lisa Tuttle, The Times Books

The author of the acclaimed transgressive cult classic Dear Dead Person returns with this long-awaited second collection of brilliantly written, outrageously imaginative and comedic short stories. In Headless, Weissman turns his daredevil wit and fearless storytelling gifts on subjects ranging from Hitler's secret life as a skier to the philosophical musings of identical twin porn stars to the travails of the world's most sitcom defying family.

"In Artificial Light: A Narrative Inquiry into the Nature of Abstraction, Immediacy, and other Architectural Fictions, Keith Mitnick - himself an architect and teacher - presents a startlingly vivid personal memoir. Inexorably linked to his highly developed awareness of his surroundings - be they the family living room, the amusement park, a porno set, or the site of a prison execution - Mitnick's observations reveal his past in engrossing detail. By exploiting the literary conventions of the genre, he crafts an intimate narrative of repressed childhood anger, adolescent rebellion, and thoughtful reflection."--BOOK JACKET.