Tragic Life Stories

STEVE DUFFY's work has been described as 'exquisite' and 'heartbreaking' (Mark Flowers, School Library Journal), 'compelling' Charles Tan, Bibliophile Stalker), and 'exceptional . . . full of menace, thrills, and growing terror (Mario Guslandi, The Short Review). TRAGIC LIFE STORIES demonstrates all these qualities, bringing the classic ghost-story up-to-date in a way that is as unsettling as it is terrifying. In these nine stories, nothing is what it seems, no one is safe, and there is absolutely nowhere to hide. Steve Duffy lives in North Wales. Since the mid-1990s his stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies in Europe and North America. Several of them have appeared in Ellen Datlow's annual Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies, and in that series' successor title Best Horror of the Year. Ash-Tree Press has published two previous collections of Steve's work, both solo (The Night Comes On) and in collaboration with Ian Rodwell (The Five Quarters). His next collection, The Moment of Panic, is scheduled to appear in 2011, and will include his International Horror Guild award-winning short story from 2000, 'The Rag-and-Bone Men'. CONTENTS: Introduction by Barbara Roden; Tragic Life Stories; Tantara; Certain Death for a Known Person; The Fabric of Things; Nightmare Farm; Someone Across the Way; Only Passing Through Here; Numbers; The First Time; Story Notes.