Quartier Perdu - Tapa blanda

"In O'Brien country you may hear the hoot of a train pulling out of the city, but you'll never be on it, because your place is here in the kingdom of backstreet pubs, tired, desirable girls and drowned men... First-class stories from one of our finest writers." --Helen Dunmore on The Silence Room (Sean's first collection)

"Atmospheric and highly literate, with a sense of writerly power in reserve, these gothic tales from a prizewinning poet strike a relishable balance between playful and macabre." --Phil Baker, The Sunday Times

"This is an impressively strong collection, in which there isn't a single forgettable story." --Andy Hedgecock, The Morning Star

Sheltering from an air raid in an empty underground station, a young woman encounters a strangely out-of-place vessel passing along the platform...

A librarian cataloguing the manuscripts of a recently deceased horror writer notices one particular box, relating to his most mystical work, has disappeared...

A young academic takes up residency in the former home of an obscure Belgian poet in order to better understand the strange rumours surrounding his demise...

Sean O’Brien’s stories are all lit with the unmistakable hue of the Victorian gothic: from the rantings of a deranged psychiatric patient, to the apparition of demons swarming into a remote, rural railway station; solemn oaths are broken and need atoning for; minor transgressions are met with outlandish curses. Often we join O’Brien’s protagonists attempting to take time out from their troubles, but removing themselves from their normal lives only lets the supernatural in, and before they know it personal demons find very literal ones to conspire with.