Jagannath

An award-winning debut story collection by Karin Tidbeck, author of Amatka and heir to Borges, Le Guin, and Lovecraft.

A child is born in a tin can. A switchboard operator finds himself in hell. Three corpulent women float somewhere beyond time. Welcome to the weird world of Karin Tidbeck, the visionary Swedish author of literary sci-fi, speculative fiction, and mind-bending fantasy who has captivated readers around the world. Originally published by the tiny press Cheeky Frawg--the passion project of Ann and Jeff VanderMeer--Jagannath has been celebrated by readers and critics alike, with rave reviews from major outlets and support from lauded peers like China Miéville and even Ursula K. Le Guin herself. These are stories in which fairies haunt quiet towns, and an immortal being discovers the nature of time--stories in which anything is possible.


“In the Borgesian tradition.... Something wonderful — and weird — is going to happen if you open this book.” —NPR
 
“Jagannath is a collection of stories that will keep you up at night, both while reading and days later, that blends the fantastic and the weird in a perfect concoction.” —Wired
 
 “Not quite like anything you’ve seen, even though you may hear vague echoes of everyone from Kafka to Borges to Tove Jansson.... [Tidbeck’s] various oddi­ties are grounded in an absolutely authentic sense of place, and a keen understanding of how the heart works.” —Locus
 
“[A] startling and highly original collection of short stories.... Wintry and wise, they incorporate myths, mysteries, and familial histories.” —Weird Fiction Review

"Quietly, intelligently, unutterably strange.  . . And ominous. And funny. And mysteriously tender. These are wonderful stories." —Ursula K. Le Guin, author of The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Earthsea Cycle

"Restrained and vivid, poised and strange, Tidbeck, with her impossible harmonies, is a vital voice." —China Miéville, author of The City & the City and Embassytown

"Uncanny and unsettling, leaving you slightly dazed and more than a little enchanted." —Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

“Were this collection to contain only its biomechanoid wonder of a title story, it would still be amazing. Jagannath heralds the arrival of a bold and brilliant new voice, which I see too few of these days. You must read Karin Tidbeck.” —Caitlin R. Kiernan, author of Agents of Dreamland
 
“In Karin Tidbeck’s collection Jagannath, the mundane becomes strange and the strange familiar with near-Hitchcockian subtlety. I loved Tidbeck’s clean, classic prose. It creates beautifully eerie music for a twilight domain.” —Karen Lord, author of The Best of All Possible Worlds
 
“I can’t think of when I last read a collection that blew me away the way that Jagannath has, or one that’s left me somewhat at a loss to describe just how strange and beautiful and haunting these tales are.” —Elizabeth Hand (from her introduction)