The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell

"Here is how monstrous humans are." A sentient, murderous prosthetic leg; shadowy creatures lurking behind a shimmering wall; brutal barrow men--of all the terrors that populate The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell, perhaps the most alarming are the beings who decimated the habitable Earth: humans. In this new short story collection, Brian Evenson envisions a chilling future beyond the Anthropocene that forces excruciating decisions about survival and self-sacrifice in the face of toxic air and a natural world torn between revenge and regeneration. Combining psychological and ecological horror, each tale thrums with Evenson's award-winning literary craftsmanship, dark humor, and thrilling suspense.

About the Author :
Brian Evenson is the author of over a dozen works of fiction. He has received three O. Henry Prizes for his fiction. His most recent book, Song for the Unraveling of the World, won a World Fantasy Award and a Shirley Jackson Award and was a finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction and the Balcones Fiction Prize. He lives in Los Angeles and teaches at CalArts.

Review :
Praise for The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell A Philadelphia Inquirer Best Book of 2021 A Southwest Review Must-Read Book of 2021 A Book Marks Best Horror and Sci-Fi of August 2021 A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2021 "His stories are deeply terrifying and so troubling that they linger in your mind long after you've read them." --R.L. Stine, creator of Goosebumps "[A] towering collection of nightmarish horror, sci-fi parables, and weird tales. . . . 'Once I take you there, ' ends another story, 'you'll have a hard time dragging yourself away.' The same could be said of Evenson's unforgettable work, drawn from the darkest corners of the imagination and nearly impossible to forget." --Publisher's Weekly, starred review "In this collection, Evenson really draws on the horrors of a collapsed environment and the moral choices one makes under pressure." --April Wolfe, Variety "[Evenson's] economical sentences and icy storytelling keep readers at arm's length, even as the air starts thinning and the room goes dark. Honestly, is there anything scarier than a narrator who doesn't care?" --Patrick Rapa, The Philadelphia Inquirer "Evenson whittles his unclassifiable, elliptical tales onto the page with an exacting obsessiveness normally associated with brain surgery. . . . [His] inventiveness, literary skill and mordant wit are always on full display." --James Grainger, Toronto Star "Today, as our wealthiest citizens race to leave the planet and climate change takes its toll on our forests, oceans, and air, Evenson's unblinking stories of genetic mutations and ecological disaster read as both cautionary and strangely transcendent." --David Peak, Bookforum "Much like Dante's layers of hell, the stories in The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell tend toward making the readers feel trapped by the situations the characters are facing." --George Fehringer, Chicago Review of Books "A new book from Brian Evenson is always a call for celebration and terror." --Leah Schnelbach, Book Marks "Few things in literature aren't up for debate, but the fact that Brian Evenson is among the most versatile and accomplished writers of contemporary American fiction is one of them." --Gabino Iglesias, Southwest Review "The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell proves, once again, that Brian Evenson is a master of short fiction." --Wayne Catan, On the Seawall "A collection of unnerving horror fiction, one that reminds readers that Brian Evenson is one of the genre's most talented horror writers." --Ian Mond, Locus "Brian Evenson is easily one of the best writers working today. Reading his stories is like moving through a dark cave with only a flashlight. Whatever's up ahead could be astonishing, thrilling, beautiful, terrifying--the only way to find out is to keep going." --Molly McGhee, Tor.com "Evenson is one of our greatest contemporary writers of literary horror; I'm always psyched--and a little afraid--when he has a new book out."--Emily Temple, Literary Hub "Brian Evenson is one of our most brilliant minds, and he has outdone himself again."--Sarah Rose Etter "Literary horror at its most existential, visceral, and wonderful. These strange stories build upon each other to create an uncanny shadow universe rich, vivid and shimmering with every kind of terror."--Mona Awad "Evenson at his greatest--visceral, relentless, alive." --Samantha Hunt "Like with Borges or Kafka, every one of Brian Evenson's stories are a whole world distilled down to a few pages, and rendered in a pointillism that feels not just abstract, but cosmic, yet is gritty all the same, and leaves a distinct, bloody residue in your mind, in your heart. And then you can no longer look at the world the way you used to." --Stephen Graham Jones