No Love Lost : The Selected Novellas of Rachel Ingalls

About this book

No Love Lost: The Selected Novellas of Rachel Ingalls Introduced by Patricia Lockwood: Gothic tales from the mistress of the weird behind frogman-romance Mrs Caliban for fans of Shirley Jackson, Lucia Berlin and Patricia Highsmith. 'Wonderful.' Margaret Atwood 'Genius.' Patricia Lockwood 'Remarkable.' Joseph Heller 'Perfect.' Max Porter ''Immensely skillful'. Ursula K. Le Guin 'Tender, erotic, singular.' Carmen Maria Machado 'Still outpaces, out-weirds, and out-romances anything today.' Marlon James 'One of the greatest short story writers we have.' The Times 'You are in masterly hands as Ingalls lures you into a swamp of violence and magic.' Sunday Times After a one-night-stand with the Angel Gabriel, a monk is transformed into a pregnant woman. Lost in the fog, two visitors are lured into a ruined candlelit mansion. A wife confiscates her husband's homemade sex doll, only to demand her own. Great-aunts warn of the deadly skin of the pearlkillers. Rachel Ingalls' incomparable novellas are masterpieces: surrealist, subversive, tragicomic. Prepare to meet what lurks beneath . 'Macabre, fantastic and haunting . . . One of the most brilliant practitioners of American Gothic since Poe . . . Read her at your peril.' Independent 'Fables whose unadorned sentences belie their irreducible strangeness . . . In her vision of intimacy and interdependence, you're simply not safe until everybody else is dead . . . Brilliant.' New Yorker 'Resists definition . . . Her work combines subtlety and horror, magic and stark realism, Greek tragedy and happily-ever-afters . . . Rare and fine. ' Guardian 'Idiosyncratic, haunting, masterly . . . A modern fabulist making myths which explode into strangeness.' Observer Review Wonderful .. Disturbing and seductive. -- Margaret Atwood Genius ... A broadcast from a stranger and more dazzling dimension. -- Patricia Lockwood Immensely skillful, reminiscent of the best film thrillers. -- Ursula K. Le Guin Still outpaces, out-weirds, and out-romances anything today. -- Marlon James Tender, erotic, singular. -- Carmen Maria Machado One of the greatest short story writers we have. ― The Times The best writer of the late 20th century you've never heard of .. Leaves you both spellbound and sucker-punched .. Bears comparison with Angela Carter. But Ingalls's darkness is offset by an air of world-weary detachment and anarchic humour. ― Spectator You are in masterly hands as Ingalls lures you into a swamp of violence and magic. -- Sunday Times So curiously right, so romantically obverse, that it creates its own terrible, brilliant reality. ― Sarah Hall Remarkable ... Haunting. -- Joseph Heller Macabre, fantastic and haunting . . . One of the most brilliant practitioners of American Gothic since Poe . . . Read her at your peril. ― Independent Fables whose unadorned sentences belie their irreducible strangeness . . . In her vision of intimacy and interdependence, you're simply not safe until everybody else is dead . . . Brilliant. ― New Yorker Resists definition . . . Her work combines subtlety and horror, magic and stark realism, Greek tragedy and happily-ever-afters . . . Rare and fine. ― Guardian Idiosyncratic, haunting, masterly . . . A modern fabulist [making] myths which explode into strangeness.' ― Observer Book Description Introduced by Patricia Lockwood: Gothic tales from the mistress of the weird behind frogman-romance Mrs Caliban for fans of Shirley Jackson, Lucia Berlin and Patricia Highsmith. About the Author Rachel Ingalls was born in Boston in 1940. She spent time in Germany before studying at Radcliffe College, and moved to England in 1965, where she lived for the rest of her life. Her debut novel, Theft (1970), won the Authors' Club First Novel Award, and her novella Mrs Caliban (1982) was named one of the 20 best American novels since World War Two by the British Book Marketing Council. Over half a century, Ingalls wrote 11 story collections and novellas - all published by Faber - to great acclaim, but remains relatively unknown. She died in 2019 after a revival of interest in her work.