Cirrus@Austlit

'A marriage dissolves in the middle of a spacewalk…

'A lonely robot searches for the remains of a long-lost child…

'An empty nester is haunted by victims of the bushfires that surround her home…

'These are tales of breaking and rebuilding, falling apart and being put back together.

'The stories in The Art of Broken Things blur the line between genres to explore some of our deepest, most fundamentally human concerns: what does it mean to build a family? And what are we willing to sacrifice, to keep that family together?

'From multiple award-winning author Joanne Anderton comes a new collection of dark science fiction, horror and weird.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Following on from her Aurealis and Australian Shadow Award-winning debut collection, Joanne Anderton’s Inanimates finds the terrifying in the everyday, bringing together seven stories where ordinary objects become the source of nightmares and extraordinary threat. 

'In “Thread Embrace,” a well-dressed killer finds himself at the mercy of an unexpectedly sartorial threat. “Simulation Theory” sees a wounded soldier bonds with the bomb disposal robot he worked with in the field. In the heartbreaking last story, “High Density”, the comfortable suburban ideal of a retired couple becomes a war against a dark and dangerous form of urban renewal.

'In turns wicked, delightful, horrifying, and fantastic, Inanimates: Tales of Everyday Fear showcases a hidden gem of the Australian genre scene, and highlights Anderton’s ability to see the dark, supernatural threats inherent in ordinary things.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.