Lost District

Description:

Author: Joel Lane

Publisher: Influx

Paperback

One of our books of the year 2024!

Emz says: Joel Lanes The Lost Districtis a collection of short stories set amongst the industrial wastelands and grim council estates of Birmingham. They each offer striking moments of the uncanny, drifting through scenes of masochistic horror, nauseating erotica, shocking trauma and existential dread. What I found most uncanny were his descriptions of the weather which perfectly match my memory of growing up in Birmingham - too hot, too cold, raining, sleeting, overcast; miserable. But now I realise that it wasnt the skys fault, it was what was underneath it. These stories made me tragically nostalgic for the depressing and, at the same time, exciting landscape of abandoned warehouses and empty carparks. It made me wonder whether Birmingham was still like that? But perhaps what I saw wasnt as important as how I saw it.