Instruction Manual for Swallowing

Exploring what happens when ordinary people collide with bizarre, fantastical situations, this collection of 14 short stories presents an engaging new voice in absurdist fiction. The stories are grotesque, hilarious, unnerving, and moving: a man discovers he has testicular cancer on the day that a Godzilla-like monster attacks the city in which he lives; a kitchen-hand is subjected to terrible peer pressure in a restaurant for zombies; a husband and wife discover they are pregnant with 37 babies; and a man travels into the engine room of his own body to discover Busta Rhymes at the controls. No matter how outrageous the subject matter of the stories, they have at their heart genuine human experiences that are common to us all. This book also includes an interview with the author.

Adam Marek is a writer who won the 2010 Arts Foundation Short Story Fellowship and was shortlisted for the inaugural Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.