This collection features tormented individuals who play out their doom in various odd little towns, as well as in dark sectors frequented by sinister and often blackly comical eccentrics. The cycle of narratives that includes the title work of this collection, for instance, introduces readers to a freakish community of artists who encounter demonic perils that ultimately engulf their lives. These are selected examples of the forbidding array of persons and places that compose the mesmerizing fiction of Thomas Ligotti.

Contents:

Derangements:
- Purity
- The Town Manager
- Sideshow, and Other Stories
- The Clown Puppet
- The Red Tower

Deformations:
- My Case for Retributive Action
- Our Temporary Supervisor
- In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land

The Damaged and the Diseased:
- Teatro Grottesco
- Gas Station Carnivals
- The Bungalow House
- Severini
- The Shadow, the Darkness