THE LANGUAGE OF KNIVES

Markov’s haunting collection of short stories features a variety of ghosts and monsters.

Many of the stories collected here have an Eastern European feel, and several take place in Bulgaria. In some of the tales, such as “Nine Tongues Tell Of” and “Convalescence,” the main character speaks with or interviews a monster or one of the dead, revealing more personal information than facts about the creature who is the ostensible subject. Other stories follow characters desperate to fulfill an unspeakable need, like the impulse to travel to a specific place (“The Mall on the Hill by the Horizon”). Some unlucky souls find their home, and eventually their own bodies, taken over by the berries that grow in their yard in “When Raspberries Bloom in August.” While the stories include frightening creatures, family curses, and monsters that emerge from under the bed, these are also narratives in which people stick together and find resilience, families reunite, and strange forms of love emerge. The endings are largely left open to interpretation, and every story will leave readers with questions, which may add to their fear or offer relief. Markov provides a wide range of stories—there’s something for almost anyone in this collection, but more squeamish readers may want to tiptoe past the darker tales to find the brighter side. The horror comes not from gruesome details but from the plain, direct prose, which allows readers to fill in the blanks with their own imaginations. The author does provide some stunning passages: “One by one around me I hear my kin all take a ghastly, long-waited inhale before dissolving into wherever spirits go next.” A perfect twilight read, this book will stick with readers as they devour story after story (just as some of Markov’s characters devour their prey).

A stunning, thrilling, and eerie collection of short stories that will delight readers of gothic fiction.