Friday Reads: The Book of the Kranzedan by Michael Hutter
In the 33 short stories collected in this richly illustrated book by the German artist Michael Hutter, the Kranzedan encounters churlish dustbin men, unkempt fairground women, a bearded man of unfathomable malice and many other dubious characters.
He loses himself by the sight of the beautiful tanks in an eerie aquarium store and on the search for the Museum of Extra-terrestrial Cultures, may unveil the eldritch secrets of a chubby neighbor woman and plays a suspicious role in a wedding tragedy. These and many other weird incidents are told and none of the tales has a happy ending.
Nightmares meet dark fairy tales meet cosmic horror, in these 33 grotesques, all expressing the authors conviction that there is something fundamentally wrong with our world.
The specifications for this book is: one book, printed in four colors throughout, bound in European cloth, ribbon marker, and a handsome dustjacket. This is an unusual book of artwork and small stories that conjures the spirit of Clark Ashton Smith and Max Ernst.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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