Good and Evil and Other Stories
Samanta Schweblin
Translated by Megan McDowell
04 September 2025Synopsis
Brilliantly read by a multi-cast of narrators.
The International Bestseller
'Just stellar - extreme, uncanny and beautifully controlled' - Anne Enright, Booker Prize winning author of The Wren, The Wren
'These stories are perfect for the times we dwell inside' - Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon
The strange and explosive new collection from the incomparable imagination of Samanta Schweblin, a master of the short story.
A gripping blend of the raw, the astonishing and the tragic, every story is as perfectly unexpected as a snare: tightly, exquisitely wound, ready to snap at a touch.
Here, a young father is haunted by the consequences of a moment of distraction; tragedy is complicated by the inexplicable appearance of an injured horse; an attempted poisoning leads two writers to startling conclusions; a lonely woman’s charity is rewarded with home-invasion. And in the shocking opening story, a mother surfaces from the depths of the lake behind her house, where she saw something awful yet alluring.
Guilt, grief and relationships severed permeate this mesmerizing collection – but so do unspeakable bonds of family, love and longing, each sinister and beautiful. Step by step these unnerving stories lure us into the shadows to confront the monsters of everyday life – ourselves.
‘No one writes like Samanta Schweblin’ – Lorrie Moore, author of I Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home
Details
04 September 2025
9781035050208Reviews
Just stellar - extreme, uncanny and beautifully controlled
Remarkably taut, clear, precise, and yet capable of capturing the extent of our human messiness, these stories are perfect for the times we dwell inside
Six fine narrators perform works that take the listener to Europe and Argentina, presenting characters in crisis. While all do exceptional work, Alma Cuervo’s cadence, eloquent style, and measured delivery of “A Fabulous Animal,” Victoria Villarreal’s portrayal of the youthful narrator of “The Woman from Atlántadita,” and Jamie K. Brown’s powerful delivery of the dramatic “Eye in the Throat” are especially powerful.
I’ll be staying at home and reading lots over summer – several books by Samanta Schweblin; I recommend her Good and Evil and Other Stories. She is a fabulous writer. Her stories are subtle, always haunting and deeply human
