Nightshade and Damnations

By: Gerald Kersh

Narrated by: Matt Godfrey

An expedition in South America uncovers a terrifying race of men without bones who literally suck the life out of their prey. A man in 20th-century London makes a horrifying discovery about a monster found off the coast of Brighton in 1745. A sea captain goes ashore on a deserted island and finds what seem to be the bones of a previously unknown species of monster, only to learn that the bones tell a much more tragic tale than he could ever have imagined. A war correspondent, none other than Kersh himself, is sailing to America when he meets a strange man who claims to be 438 years old. These are the plots of just a few of the weird tales you will find in this book.

©1968, 2018 Gerald Kersh (P)2019 Valancourt Books LLC

Critic reviews

"Gerald Kersh had a wild imagination matched by a vivid, near-hallucinatory style. Many of his concepts are so original that they blur the distinction between fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and horror, but the cumulative impact of his short stories is horrific in the extreme." (Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural)

The weirdness is worth your time!

Valancourt Books is doing good things by bringing works like this out of obscurity. After going down the Paperbacks From Hell rabbit hole, I came across this and took a chance for a credit. I was not disappointed in the slightest.

I hope more books and stories from Gerald Kersh are in the works.

Great Horror Anthology

The stories were all very interesting and did not drag along. Each story made me want to listen to the next. The narrator was excellent.

Great Collection By An Obscure Master

Kersh wrote a variety of short fiction and the best of it was assembled here by Harlan Ellison. Kersh wrote horror, sci fi, fantasy, crime, and did so with eloquence. There are some real gems here.

Nightshade & Damnations

I loved this collection of short stories. They were well written and kept me interested until the last word. In my opinion, this was the best performance from Matt Godfrey. His narration was perfect. The last story was my favorite. Now I need to find more works by Gerald Kersh!

Entertaining

Very enjoayble collection of fun stories. Good pacing and length of stories. Each story was just right, intriguing, interesting, and satisfying. Quite often I find short stories to vague or left wishing for more, these felt complete.
Narration was excellent as expected from M. Godfrey. Well worth a listen.