“This can’t-look-away weird tale begins a little like an urban crime-noir, with its naïve grimdark character who cannot pay his debts but quickly devolves into something macabre and twisted. Written in a traditional style perfectly suited to the gothic nature of the narrative and with some truly scary elements, the story features themes of social inequality and betrayal. I love the ‘surreal’ metaphor of Magritte here since things are clearly not all they seem throughout this little page-turner. Not for the squeamish!”

—Lee Murray

“An expert connoisseur of literary and cinematic horror, Nicola Lombardi is one of the most highly regarded and talented writers of contemporary horror, capable of probing the darkest recesses of the human soul through a lens--at the same time both true and distorting--as only the finest writers know how to do.”

—Guida ai narratori italiani del fantastico (Odoya Editore, 2018)

“One of the most important Italian authors of the macabre . . . esteemed both in Italy and abroad.”

—Christian Sartirana

“Nicola knows how to spread his magic to any reader thanks to an impressive elegance, a grace worthy of high literature, chiseling supernatural horrors with perfect and clean language.”

—Paolo Di Orazio

“Lombardi, a veteran of literary horror, manages to describe distressing psychological moments, delving into the most underground meanderings of the subconscious with great skill . . . Lombardi writes words and phrases in such a fascinating way that it captures you from the very first description.”

—Progetto Babele

Author Bio

Nicola Lombardi, an active participant in the Horror Writers Association, has published in Italy the novels The Gypsy Spiders, Black Mother, Night Calls, The Red Bed, The Tank, Strigarium, and The Engraver, as well as seven collections of stories. In addition, he has published novelizations from the films of Dario Argento (Profondo Rosso and Suspiria) and translated works by Jack Ketchum, Seabury Quinn, and many others for the Italian market. In 2021 Tartarus Press published his collection The Gypsy Spiders and Other Tales of Italian Horror (“Lombardi maintains a nervy, churning atmosphere, keeping readers just off-balance enough to let the big beats feel shocking and subversive. . . . Lombardi has a knack for writing endings that linger. Lovers of postwar narratives and surrealist horror won’t want to miss this.”

--Publishers Weekly}. Full bibliography at www.nicolalombardi.com.

Translator Bio

J. Weintraub has published fiction, essays, and poetry in all sorts of literary places and his plays have been produced throughout the USA and internationally. As a translator he has introduced the Italian and Swiss horror writers, Nicola Lombardi and Davide Staffiero, to the English-speaking world, and his annotated translation of Eugène Briffault’s Paris à table: 1846 was published by Oxford UP in 2018. His collection of speculative fiction, A Visit to the Catacombs, is scheduled for publication in 2026. More at https://jweintraub.weebly.com/