Unlike the other sample chapters from 'Bad Liver and a Broken Heart', this isn't a chapter disguised as a self-contained short story. It's a soundscape, produced by the remarkable Claudia Relota. Instead of reading my words, you can listen to my beautiful voice narrating a section of the story, and admire the auditory creation of Claudia.
The artwork is by Nikita Klimov, and is part of a chapbook we created together.
The genesis of this story is that, many years ago, I got lost in a forest near the Müggelsee. I was on my bicycle, unable to comprehend my map, feeling very sorry for myself. This was the days before smartphones were compulsory, and were the property of only the reasonably wealthy, which I was not. When I finally got to the lake, the weather had changed, it was too cold to go swimming, and the landscape had acquired a nightmarish look. I went back to Berlin feeling miserable, got soaked in a thunder storm, arrived back at the flat soggy and chilly, to find there was no food. What there was, however, was an email from my friend John, who had won a writing competition with a short fiction horror story, which he'd attached. It was an excellent story and he deserved to win. I swallowed my jealousy and wrote him a letter of congratulations, telling him about the day I'd had, and therefore the context in which I'd read his story. He said my day would make a great horror story. Turns out, he was right.
If you are interested in reading the story in full, or being the proud owner of a copy of the chapbook, please contact me. I'll see what I can do.
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