Service95 Recommends is the home of the books we love and reviews from our contributors. Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell, is a strange and unnerving collection of short stories.
What We Say: “Acclaimed American writer Lorrie Moore says, “No one writes like Samanta Schweblin,” and Samanta’s third short story collection proves why. This slim but haunting volume opens with a mother surfacing from a lake after a suicide attempt, setting the tone for six quietly unsettling tales. Each story begins with the ordinary – a family visit, childhood memory, romantic reconnection – but swiftly shifts into the strange and emotionally charged. Her characters stand at tipping points, caught between understanding and confusion, presence and disappearance. The ‘horror’ here is subtle, psychological and deeply personal – and what stayed with me wasn’t just what unfolds in these stories, but often what was left unspoken or implied. They linger like a strange aftertaste, forcing anyone who reads to confront ambiguity, dread and the raw complexity of being human.” – Lisa Harvey
What They Say: “These beautifully crafted and eerily unsettling stories completely hypnotised me. This is the sort of storytelling which resonates in the head, the heart and all mysterious parts in between…” – Jan Carson
Available on Bookshop.org, Waterstones, and Barnes & Noble
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Lisa Harvey is Editorial Director at Service95
