Fiction. Gothic twists and pop-up trivia from the day-before-yesterday mark these ten fairytales of female lives. At turns reminiscent of Angela Carter, David Lynch, and Isak Dinesen, Nicolette de Csipkay's debut collection signals a fresh, versatile talent worthy of wide attention. "This is a polished gem of a book. Exquisitely written, elegantly imagined, de Csipkay's stories are dreams hardened into dagger points. From the pleasure trip that becomes a little too Kafkesque to the floral sacrifice that turns deadly, de Csipkay's precise and dazzling prose twists and mutates, serpentine, from fairy tale to gothic horror, from banality to peril. Populated by unforgettable characters, in a style too fierce to be false, BLACK UMBRELLA STORIES is simultaneously enchanting and disturbing, and is an absolutely orginal debut"--Jeffrey DeShell.