Senaa Ahmad – författare

'An astounding debut, so full of wonder, outrage, invention, fireworks, sheer brilliance' Edward Carey, author of Little

'Subversive, hilarious and shockingly original' Rosanna Pike, author of A Little Trickerie

'A true, unique talent' Kat Dunn, author of Hungerstone

Step into the past. Rush headlong at the future. The Age of Calamities is here.

Henry VIII wants Anne Boleyn dead, but there's just one small problem: she's alive again by morning, sipping tea at the breakfast table. In the gilded hush of the Winter Palace, the Romanov sisters slip through time and waltz aboard a spaceship bound for the stars. A woman on the run strikes a sinister bargain with the ghost of Joan of Arc, but can she reclaim her body before sunrise?

With flickers of horror and dark humour, The Age of Calamities catapults us through sentient houses, looping timelines and haunted histories. Fiercely inventive and wickedly playful, these stories mark the arrival of a bold new voice in fiction-inviting the reader to confront the past, the present and themselves, all at once.

PRAISE FOR THE AGE OF CALAMITIES:

'Surreal, funny and endlessly thought-provoking' Dazed

'An addictive blend of imagination and wit' Katherine J. Chen, author of Joan

'Full of imaginative daring and electrifying humour' Naomi Booth, author of Animals at Night

'The past comes to unexpected, vivid life in these speculative short stories' Publishers Weekly

'Wonderful writing that had me in its grasp to the very last sentence' Nydia Hetherington, author of Sycorax

'Stunning in its power, purpose and ambition' Maggie Su, author of Blob: A Love Story

'Dazzlingly inventive' Kelly Link, author of White Cat, Black Dog

'Wild, incantatory, upending' Claire Oshetsky, author of Evil Genius

'I loved Ahmad's perilously playful journeys to other timescapes' Leon Craig, author of Parallel Hells

Written by an inimitable new voice, The Age of Calamities is a genre-defying, mind-bending collection of absurdist, funny, and speculative short stories. In this bold debut collection, Senaa Ahmad pushes the boundaries of history and its figures, sending the reader on a thrilling ride. In "e;Let's Play Dead,"e; Henry VIII wants Anne Boleyn gone, but there's a tiny problem-she keeps coming back to life no matter what he does. "e;Choose Your Own Apocalypse"e; hurls readers back to 1945, where they assume the role of a technician for the Manhattan Project, confronted with labyrinthine paths and harrowing outcomes. And "e;Inside the House of the Historian"e; invites us to a dinner party turned murder mystery full of figures like Nefertiti, Queen Victoria, John Adams, and Marilyn Monroe. These stories and others entice readers to confront the past, the present, and themselves all at once. Zany and haunting, inviting and brilliant, each poignant tale delves into the surreal and tragicomic nature of the present through the lens of yesterday.The Age of Calamities is an evocation of life and death on history's unsteady margins, of how to reckon with the blunt-force trauma of ill-fated times. Fiercely clever and wildly inventive, this debut establishes Senaa Ahmad as a literary force.