The Stone Mirror

by Ian Spring

A collection of short fictions, mostly about death, in which a man turns into a house (or vice versa), angels appear on the Earth (but far too often), Doctor Faust is undeniably damned (several times), decapitation (and cardiectomy) fail to prove fatal and various other literary ploys occur (or fail to occur).

Challenging and exhilarating Gothic fables mixing genres and fact and fiction. You are guaranteed to love them (or hate them).

150 pages, Paperback

About the author

Ian Spring has been writing about Scottish cultural history for over forty years. After an academic career in universities in Scotland, England, Wales and the United States, he now devotes himself solely to writing and publishing.

He has written two books on Glasgow: Phantom Village and Real Glasgow. Other works include Hamish Henderson and Scottish Folk Song (2014) and he has edited the work of Mary Symon and Peter Buchan. His first volume of poetry will appear in 2021.

Reviews

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like Borges, you will love the magic and playfulness and the wonderful world-building of ‘The Stone Mirror’. The stories in this collection will hold you enthralled, caught in a labyrinthine world of angels (with and without wings), and gods come down to earth to discover what it is to be alone, and Faustian devils making bad bargains with writers (aren’t they always bad bargains?). The writing is sometimes beautiful or raw or clever – indeed, always clever. This is a collection to lose yourself in – armed with the hope that you can sometime find your way out again. This collection deserves to be read – so read it!