Secret Pool

Helen Klumpf makes peanut brittle, sends letters, and one morning rises above her lawn. August’s grandfather takes him to a hidden fishing pool, where a family farewell opens onto something far older and stranger. Elsewhere, a bewildered newcomer receives a welcome to Valhalla from Odin, and a carnival worker sees more of his customers’ futures than he wants to know.

Secret Pool brings together twenty-five pieces of short fiction by Seth Johnson. Ordinary people meet the impossible in backyards, diners, forests, and houses full of memory. Some stories are tender or slyly funny; others turn toward ghosts, folklore, and horror. Through them runs a curiosity about what we inherit, what we lose, and what may be waiting just outside our usual view of the world.

In the title story, a boy and his dying grandfather go fishing together. Their journey begins with worms and pancakes and leads to a secret that changes the way August sees life and death. It is one of many stories in this collection that finds wonder without losing sight of grief, humour, or the details of a human life.

Published after Seth Johnson’s death, with an introduction by Victoria Sulayman, Secret Pool offers readers a wide-ranging encounter with his imagination: magical realism, weird fiction, dark fantasy, and moments of quiet beauty.