Comyns’ novel is deranged in ways that shouldn’t be disclosed. -Ben Marcus

This is the story of the Willoweed family and the English village in which they live. It begins mid-flood, ducks swimming in the drawing-room windows, quacking their approval as they sail around the room. What about my rose beds? demands Grandmother Willoweed. Her son shouts down her ear-trumpet that the garden is submerged, dead animals everywhere, she will be lucky to get a bunch. Then the miller drowns himself … then the butcher slits his throat … and a series of gruesome deaths plagues the villagers. The newspaper asks, Who will be smitten by this fatal madness next? Through it all, Comyns’ unique voice weaves a text as wonderful as it is horrible, as beautiful as it is cruel. Originally published in England in 1954, this overlooked small masterpiece is a twisted, tragicomic gem.