In perhaps the most magnificent of what he called his 'strange stories', Robert Aickman blurs the lines between memory, premonition and the hallucinated life.
Lene, a woman now recovering from the losses of the Second World War, recalls a gothic dolls' house of her childhood and the way in which its uncanny inhabitants entered her dreams. Most chillingly, the geometries of the house didn't add up; there had to be a secret room inside it.
Years later, she comes across a life-size version in a wood not marked on any map . . .
Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.***
It was never less than half an hour after the engine stopped running that my father deigned to signal for succour.
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(@FaberBooks, 3 January 2019, ebook, 35 pages, bought from @AmazonKindle)
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I've read other stories by the author so enjoy his style. I really liked The Inner Room. This is a horror story but very different from the usual fare. There is an undercurrent of strangeness and menace running through the story rather than in-your-face horror. I found this story very unsettling. I really liked the premise of Lene stumbling across a strange house in an unmarked wood that has a striking resemblance to the strange doll's house from her childhood. This is an unsettling piece of writing.