Offbeat short stories that explore our fragile world

These stories savour the surreal, flirt with magical realism, dabble with dystopia. A boy sees the ghosts of dead crabs. A girl with a fox tail is bullied. A disenchanted woman sprouts orchids from her belly button. Fashion models pursue the trend of having plants as hair. Electronic goods amassing all over London herald an apocalypse. Darkness and wonder, the strange and the ordinary, interweave to offer an environmental and social portrait of our times. Guaranteed to evoke a response, whether a giggle, a gasp, or a nervous gulp, these stories will stay with you, enriching your perception of the world.

Surreal, absurdist, magical realist; Katy Wimhurst writes speculative fiction that meditates on our reality. Although bleak themes are examined – dystopian futures, the climate crisis, bullying &ndash a quirky imagination and wry humour lift the tales above the ‘realm of grim’.

“Can anyone fail to be enchanted by ‘An Orchid in My Belly Button’, the leading story in Katy Wimhurst’s new collection? After this first delight, 19 tales follow. My favourite is that of the boy who sees the ghosts of crabs killed by polluted water. Environmental pollution in its myriad forms is the plank on which many stories rest. Does Wimhurst offer a solution to the tragedies underpinning each tale? I won’t tell you. But her touch is light, her characters familiar. You are reading magic realism at its finest. Each of these stories will repay close and careful reading. The images will stay with you, reminding you there can still be hope if we act now instead of prevaricating.”

– Dorothy Schwarz, author of Behind a Glass Wall

“Katy Wimhurst’s stories give me that same sense of strangeness and warmth that I got when I was young from some of Gabriel García Márquez shorter tales, and by ‘warmth’ I don’t mean to suggest that these are all feelgood fictions but that the prose in which they are written glows. The style is fully flowering, a joy to read, a delight to ponder, perfectly adapted to the embodying of the author's filling and nourishing narratives. Simply stated, these are excellent stories. They seem almost organically grown, enveloping the reader in the tendrils of their telling. There is precision here too, but it is never angular. This is a superb book by a wonderful writer. And it’s not Magic Realist in the flowery sense, despite the blooms of the title story, but realistically tough when it needs to be, filled with the alienating situations, circumstances and bewildered people of the contemporary world. Hard to choose a favourite when the book is so tightly integrated with itself but ‘The Blind Ark’ has lodged itself very firmly into my mind. A magnificent collection.”

– Rhys Hughes, author of The Devil’s Halo

“An interesting and unusual collection of stories, many of which combine the memorable imagery of the surreal with the moral thrust of the fable. Very enjoyable.”

– Charlie Hill, author of Encounters with Everyday Madness

“Through whimsy and a prodigious imagination, Wimhurst has crafted compelling stories that take contemporary societal issues to their extreme, serving as a reminder of the need for change without being didactic. They are modern-day parables. Her characters face real challenges around grief, money, self-esteem, bullying, health, and climate change. In Wimhurst’s hands, care and compassion for living beings combine with a sense of wonder and delight to create memorable, enjoyable tales. Misfits – AKA, those who feel unwelcome in an unsustainable, patriarchal society – will find their kindreds in these tales and feel uplifted, something we greatly need at this time.”

– Amanda Earl, author of Beast Body Epic