VOICE OF THE STRANGER

This gruesome collection of short stories explores the perils and pleasures of encounters with the unknown.

“You are entering strange territory,” remarks Schaller in a smart, sinister introduction that cautions readers that any stranger encountered “might be the Stranger”—or rather, the devil himself. Fourteen stories are offered here, many of which draw inspiration from fairy and folktales. In the opening story, “The Five Cigars of Abu Ali,” an old friend returns to tell a tale about his encounter with a genie while in Pakistan. Meanwhile, in “North of Lake Winnipesaukee,” the surviving wolf of a slaughtered pack wreaks vengeance on colonists in the most perverse fashion. The collection also features a trilogy of urban folktales, one of which introduces readers to “the city of rats,” in which the mayor’s beautiful rodent daughter is in search of a suitor. Schaller also has an interest in mechanical devices, and stories like “The Watchmaker” and “Automata” ponder the blurred divide between the human and the artificial. At the close of the volume, the author includes “Story Notes,” in which he reveals his inspiration for each of the tales here. Schaller’s plotlines are devilishly unsettling. In “Wildflowers,” a young boy learns that grazing sheep in certain pastures can cause them to give birth to lambs with cyclopia. As an adult, he knowingly offers his pregnant partner a salad of hand-picked wildflowers—and readers must brace themselves for a horrifying outcome. Similarly, “A Study in Abnormal Physiology,” set in Victorian London, is a Holmes-ian story of botched abortions and stolen fetuses. This is a compelling, fast-paced tale, punctuated by weirdly intriguing, if unsettling, descriptive details: “Pinkish membranes spanned the digits of its hands and feet. Gill slits parted behind its ears, revealing downy frills crimson with oxygenated blood. It lacked obvious genitalia, suggesting a female, but I could not be certain given its erratic development.” Schaller’s writing is not for everyone, but those happy to give it a chance will leave satisfyingly disturbed. The lure of these tales is that anything is possible—and the author does a fine job of keeping readers on a knife’s edge. Fans of Angela Carter’s rewriting of fairy tales will find particular delight in this skillfully written, if grisly, collection.  

Beguilingly inventive and edgy tales.