Hair Side, Flesh Side

Author: Helen Marshall
Genres: Collection, Dark Fantasy, Horror
Publisher: ChiZine Publications
Publication Year: 2012

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.

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Awards

2013 British Fantasy Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer (Winner)
2013 Aurora Award for Best Related Work (Short-List)
Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize (Long-list)

Library Journal, Starred Review

“. . . 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.”

What the Critics are Saying

"Darkness can be as beautiful as light, and rarely is that perfect diorama of light and shadow more lyrically and elegantly rendered than it is here, in Helen Marshall’s debut short fiction collection, Hair Side, Flesh Side. These stories are a literary storm sweeping in across the water, with lightning flickering at its heart and a promise of fury yet unleashed."
Michael RoweAuthor of Enter, Night
". . . 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 PostRead the 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 ReviewRead the Review
". . . 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 ReviewRead the Review
"Stories subtle and unsettling: Helen Marshall clothes the uncanny in new flesh and then makes it bleed."
Kelly Link World Fantasy Award-winning author of Pretty Monsters
". . . Helen Marshall’s debut collection reads like a fanciful walk through her dark imagination. . . . Strangely touching, disturbing and weird as hell, Marshall proves herself a potent new talent."
Rue Morgue Magazine

Hair Side, Flesh Side