'Each tale here seems to be its own torture chamber--dark and meticulous . . . More disturbing than the bloody imagery is the eerie calm with which each plot unfolds, as if one act of violence must necessarily transform into the portal for another.' --The New Yorker A collection of eleven eerie and harrowing interwoven tales from the award-winning author of Mina's Matchbox and The Memory Police--now with a new introduction by Carmen Maria Machado. An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. A bereft and grieving mother attempts to connect with her dead son. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon's jealous lover vows to kill him. Desire meets with impulse and erupts, attracting the attention of the surgeon's neighbor--who is drawn to a decaying residence that is now home only to instruments of human torture. Murderers and mourners, mothers and children, lovers and enemies--their fates converge in an ominous and darkly beautiful