Cover, Synopsis & TOC: “North American Lake Monsters: Stories” by Nathan Ballingrud

Small Beer Press has the cover art, synopsis and table of contents of the upcoming collection North American Lake Monsters: Stories by Nathan Ballingrud.

Here’s the synopsis:

“Nathan Ballingrud is one of my favorite short fiction writers.”—Jeff VanderMeer

“Nathan Ballingrud’s ‘The Way Station’ is another story of the sort I’ve come to expect from him: emotionally intense, riveting, and deeply upsetting in many ways. It deals with loss, with the aftereffects of Katrina on a homeless alcoholic who’s haunted by the city itself be-fore the flood, and in doing so it’s wrenching. . . . It’s an excellent story that paints a riveting por-trait of a man, his city, and his loss.”—Tor.com on The Naked City

“But the two most remarkable stories in Naked City are by relatively new authors: ‘The Projected Girl’ (Haifa) by Lavie Tidhar and ‘The Way Station’ (New Orleans and St. Petersburg, Florida) by Nathan Ballingrud are both heartbreakers.”—John Clute on Strange Hori-zons

These are love stories. And also monster stories. Sometimes these are mon-sters in their traditional guises, sometimes they wear the faces of parents, lovers, or ourselves. The often working-class people in these stories are driven to extremes by love. Sometimes, they are ruined; sometimes redeemed. All are faced with the loneliest corners of themselves and strive to find an escape.

Here’s the Table of contents:

1. “You Go Where It Takes You”
2. “Wild Acre”
3. “S.S.”
4. “The Crevasse”
5. “The Monsters of Heaven”
6. “Sunbleached”
7. “North American Lake Monsters”
8. “The Way Station”
9. “The Good Husband”

Book info as per Amazon US [Also available via Amazon UK]:

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Small Beer Press (July 16, 2013)
• ISBN-10: 1618730592
• ISBN-13: 978-1618730596