Acres of Perhaps: Stories and Episodes
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- €5.49
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- €5.49
Publisher Description
Acres of Perhaps collects acclaimed weird fiction writer Will Ludwigsen's recent and most heartfelt stories; these are tales that delve into what crime means, could a person live a different life than the one of the moment, what humanity can do about the big and small evils of the world...as well as inspired serial killers, haunted presidents, cursed lead figurines, and a weird late-night 60s television show that meant much more to the fabric of reality than it let on. These stories are the collision of imaginative fantasy and brutal realism.
"...a simple conceit that works magnificently. There are no duds in this small collection, and the highlights will easily win Ludwigsen a number of new fans." - Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Evocative tales of alternate realities steeped in the ethos of Shirley Jackson and Ray Bradbury. " - Kirkus Reviews
"From delaying the advent of Charles Manson until the disco era to imagining a very different career path for Edgar Allan Poe, there is magic in these stories, even if magic can’t always save us. Will Ludwigsen asks 'What if?' like no one else, and his answers are full of wonder that aches with authenticity and bittersweet nostalgia. Imagine The Twilight Zone with a beating heart, Hitchcock crackling with strangeness around his edges. This is masterful storytelling for fans of literary and genre fiction alike." - Michael Wehunt, author of Greener Pastures
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The third collection from Shirley Jackson Award finalist Ludwigsen builds on its title story, a tale of a fictional old TV show and its creators that avoids most of the worst sins of stories focused on writers and invokes the better tropes ("Then, being writers, we spent the night getting drunk and bitching about the money men"). Ludwigsen expands his original story with the five titular "episodes," brief synopses of fictional Acres of Perhaps shows. But the real meat of the collection is in the remaining stories, particularly "The Zodiac Walks on the Moon," which dodges the clich s associated with tales about real serial killers, and instead explores how the Zodiac killer might have reacted to the Apollo 11 moon landing ("I understand the impulse to look up, though. To wonder"). Ludwigsen goes to the serial killer well again with "Night Fever," reimagining Charles Manson in the late-'70s disco scene in New York City, mostly from the perspective of those around him who are affected by his actions. It's a simple conceit that works magnificently. There are no duds in this small collection, and the highlights will easily win Ludwigsen a number of new fans.
