Description

The Islands of Sorrow and Other Macabre Tales by Simon Raven

Paperback – Valancourt – 2019 – 151 pages

The Islands of Sorrow is set in occupied Italy in the summer of 1945, where a British army officer, Adam Ogilvie, begins to grow curious about a series of strange happenings. His investigations lead him to the island of Marciume (whose name means “decay”), where nurses dressed in bizarre garb tend to a community of masked patients, sufferers from a mysterious disease similar to leprosy. Ignoring the warnings of his Italian colleagues, Ogilvie continues his queries, which finally lead him to an ancient catacombs where ten corpses hanging from the walls will lead to a horrible revelation. This volume also features eleven shorter tales, including eerie and elegant classics of the macabre like “Remember Your Grammar,” “The Bottle of 1912,” and “The Sarcophagus.”