A child receives the body of Saint Lucia of Syracuse for her seventh birthday. A rebelling angel rewrites the Book of Judgement to protect the woman he loves. A young woman discovers the lost manuscript of Jane Austen written on the inside of her skin. A 747 populated by a dying pantheon makes the extraordinary journey to the beginning of the universe. Lyrical and tender, quirky and cutting. Helen Marshall’s exceptional debut collection weaves the fantastic and the horrific alongside the touchingly human in fifteen modern parables about history, memory and the cost of creating art. 2013 British Fantasy Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer (Winner) 2013 Aurora Award for Best Related Work (Short-List) "Masterful horror. In Marshall’s dark landscapes, the metaphors are feral and they’ll turn on you in a heartbeat." --M.R. Carey, Author of The Girl with All the Gifts “. . . A tour de force of imagination, this remarkable debut collection uses the conventions of dark fantasy and horror as the framework for some of speculative fiction’s most unusual stories. VERDICT Fans of experimental fiction and exceptional writing should find a wealth of enjoyment here.” --Library Journal, Starred Review ". . . Amidst moments of body horror and hauntings galore, miracles and expressions of joy are liberally sprinkled, offering moments that lingered in my thoughts well after I’d finished the story. . . . I cannot wait to see what Marshall conjures next."--San Francisco Book Review "The stories in Helen Marshall’s Hair Side, Flesh Side occur in the interstices of our most fundamental relations. Brothers and sisters, parents and children, lovers find the space between them grown strange, shifting, as the familiar becomes the site and the source of startling transformation. Elegant, unsettling, these stories leave the reader no less changed than their characters. Highly recommended work." --John Langan, Author of Technicolor and Other Revelations and House of Windows ". . . Hair Side, Flesh Side is a strong first collection of speculative fiction borne out of faded manuscripts, old libraries and the memories of the past. However, it’s how Marshall sees us reconcile these ghosts with the world of the living that give her stories the weight of immediacy. She is a talent to be discovered." --The National Post

Neil Gaiman

“Helen Marshall is a writer who creates real people in real situations, then uses the fantastic to pry her way inside her readers’ rib cages and break us wide open.”

This is Horror

“Marshall’s work is fantastical and surreal, with similarities to that of writers like Kelly Link and Robert Shearman. But whereas Link’s stories can sometimes seem wilfully opaque, Marshall’s are built round an emotional core that is always engaging; whereas Robert Shearman might use his twisted plots for the purposes of dark comedy, Marshall’s stories are full of heartbreak and hurt. . . . Gifts for the One Who Comes After should single out Marshall as one of the most accomplished writers of the fantastic being published today, an exceptional collection likely to be among the best 2014 has to offer.”

SFRevu

“Marshall is an extremely talented, wonderful writer. . . .”

Kelly Link, author of Pretty Monsters and Stranger Things Happen

“Stories subtle and unsettling: Helen Marshall clothes the uncanny in new flesh and then makes it bleed.”

Benjamin Percy, author of Red Moon and The Dead Lands

“Helen Marshall whispers in your ear when she fits the noose around your neck, filling you with wonder and dread, urging you into a startling, beautiful darkness. These stories―which sometimes feel more like spells―are the very best kind of unsettling.”

SF Site

“. . . Marshall is simply extraordinary.”

January Magazine

“Sometimes you hear people talking about the new face of horror. Well huddle closer, children. Hair Side, Flesh Side is it. This is author Helen Marshall’s debut story collection, but she’s no stranger to these shores. . . . Marshall’s stories are frightening, touching, quirky, sexy and deeply lyrical.”

Rue Morgue Magazine

“Strangely touching, disturbing and weird as hell, Marshall proves herself a potent new talent.”

Tim Lebbon, author of Echo City and The Thief of Broken Toys

“Helen Marshall writes assured, accomplished prose that is as chilling as it is beautiful, and the stories she tells are as daring as they are unexpected. This superb first collection is set to make waves.”

About the Author

Helen Marshall’s debut collection Hair Side, Flesh Side earned her praise as “the new face of horror” (January Magazine). Her work has been nominated for the Aurora Award from the Canadian Society of Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association, and the Sydney J. Bounds Award from the British Fantasy Society, which she won in 2013.

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