Nightshade and Damnations (Valancourt 20th Century Classics)

An expedition in South America uncovers a terrifying race of men without bones who literally suck the life out of their prey. A man in 20th-century London makes a horrifying discovery about a monster found off the coast of Brighton in 1745. A sea captain goes ashore on a deserted island and finds what seem to be the bones of a previously unknown species of monster, only to learn that the bones tell a much more tragic tale than he could ever have imagined. A war correspondent meets a soldier who claims to be 438 years old. These are the plots of just a few of the weird tales you will find in this book. Gerald Kersh (1911-1968) was a brilliant and inventive writer acclaimed in his time for his gritty novels of London life and his often bizarre short fiction, but he has unfortunately become neglected since his death. This volume includes an introduction by award-winning science fiction author Harlan Ellison, who also selected the eleven stories that appear in this collection and which represent the very best of Kersh's short fiction. "No mortal can write this well." - Harlan Ellison "Sometimes funny, sometimes nightmarish, always first-class entetainment." - The New York Times "Kersh had a wild imagination matched by a vivid, near-hallucinatory style ... the cumulative impact of his short stories is horrific in the extreme." - Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural