The Secret Life of Insects and Other Stories

In 'The Secret Life of Insects', a forensic entomologist tries to solve the murder of his wife, who impossibly seems to have been killed in a forest at the same time she was asleep in bed with him. The husband in 'The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife' becomes concerned by his wife's strange behavior, which includes sleepwalking, muttering strange phrases, and a bizarre erotic fascination with octopi. In 'Come to Me', a woman visits a witch doctor who promises to forge an unbreakable bond between her and the man of her dreams, but things go horribly awry after the man dies. And in the novella 'Demoness', four high school friends reunite at a class reunion twenty years later and must face the long-buried truth of a demonic experience from their youth.

Bernardo Esquinca's haunting tale 'Señor Ligotti' represented Mexico in the acclaimed The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories and was a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award. Now Valancourt Books is proud to present this collection of fourteen of his best stories, which also features a foreword by award-winning author Mariana Enríquez and stunning full-page illustrations by Spanish artist Luis Pérez Ochando.

'These stories are fully cognizant of Horror's past, but they also provide clear signposts for Horror's possible future. Very deft, smart stories that manage to do in ten pages what most novels struggle to accomplish in thirty times that. Esquinca is a writer to watch.' - Brian Evenson, award-winning author of

Song for the Unraveling of the World

'From short, punchy, Twilight Zone-ish stories to longer, far more insidious dances with horror and madness, Esquinca weaves reality with illusion deftly in The Secret Life of Insects, an excellent collection. Recommended!' - Elizabeth Engstrom, author of When Darkness Loves Us and Black Ambrosia

'Bernardo Esquinca's haunting, original stories spin out implications like spider silk: light, strong . . . and very dangerous.' - Michael Cisco, author of The Divinity Student

'Bernardo Esquinca is a writer who knows that fear is another form of desire. Of the desire for the dark, the desire for the mysterious, and the desire for life in death. His writing grabs you and takes you by the hand through obsessions where what is beautiful and monstrous in humanity dwells. Read him: you're going to be terrified and amazed at the same time.' - Mónica Ojeda, author of Jawbone

'Bernardo Esquinca traces the veil between the natural and supernatural, and with a doctor's precision, he slits that perimeter in order to reach through and drag back something completely outside the realm of our own comprehension. The fourteen tales within this breathtaking collection don't come from our world, but beyond it. The Secret Life of Insects firmly establishes Esquinca as a rising dark star of horror.' - Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eater