Blending the fabulous with the macabre, the lyrical with the grotesque, the atemporal with the present, and melancholy with dark humor, these stories will take you from the ambiguous world of modern folktales where a man tries to catch Death in a box, to communist Eastern Europe where a man eats his own brains, to contemporary women who like garbage, or who prefer to keep their babies inside their bodies rather than give birth.
“Alta Ifland is a realist for people who hate reality. Time and identity melt away in the first few pages, creating new nerve-endings for existential anxiety. Reading Death-in-a-Box excites and terrifies; it’s like watching reality bleed.” —Carolyn Cooke, author of Daughters of the Revolution
“Fun, glam and deliciously smart, Ifland’s language whispers half-forgotten folktales from imagined folk, remembering stories that never happened about people who never existed. Go ahead, open this box. I dare you.” —Jeffrey DeShell, author of Art House, and The Trouble with Being Born
