A Dark and Narrow House - by Usman T Malik (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Some writers go a step past, into the darkness, but that step past is just a starting point for Usman T. Malik . . . Follow his voice. If you dare." --Stephen Graham Jones, bestselling author of The Only Good Indians

Shirley Jackson meets The Arabian Nights in this stunning, epic dark fantasy, the debut novel of Stoker and World Fantasy award-winning author, Usman T. Malik.

When a mysterious and deadly plague sweeps through the world, a group of friends retreats to a luxurious countryside mansion at the Pakistani-Indian border, unaware of the ancient darkness lying in wait inside its walls.

After unearthing a sealed chest from a hidden cave on the property, the group realizes the terrible truth: they have trapped themselves inside the haveli with a secret, primordial power far more dangerous than the world they were trying to escape. As each member of the group fractures under the strain of the haveli's maddening spell, they must decide whether to face the truth of their own demons or be lost within in the glittering labyrinth forever.

In his lush, epic debut novel, award-winning writer Usman T. Malik invites readers to explore the rich, spellbinding tapestry that is Middle Eastern folklore. A Dark and Narrow House is a terrifying exploration of memory, trauma, and the power of stories to save or destroy us.

Review Quotes

Praise for A Dark and Narrow House

"I promise you've never read anything quite like A Dark and Narrow House. Malik has written an intriguing and very dark fantasy about borders--not only physical, but emotional, moral, and magical. Trapped inside the walls of a luxurious estate, Malik's haunted characters have nowhere to go but within...and across every threshold. When fairy tales come off the page, they're terrifying! An impressive debut!" --Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of Road of Bones and Carry Me to My Grave

"Brutal yet lyrical as the most ancient of retold stories, this Fibonacci sequence of unsanitized fairytales is uncompromising, worldly, enlightening and improbably true as the mating of two kingdoms to form lichen. The group of twenty-somethings scrabbling through this tangle finds their cool self-oriented cosmopolitanism bloodied as the undead--evil, cowardice, fear, bravery, beauty and love--flay the scabs off their cynicism." --Anna Tambour, Crawford and World Fantasy Award nominee

Praise for Usman T. Malik

"Malik is a master of the uncanny and the sublime." --Kelly Link, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Love

"[A] boundless imagination." --Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie

"Brilliant writer, one to watch out for and buy everything instantly forever." --Jo Walton, award-winning author of Among Others

"Malik invokes worlds of enchantment and magic superimposed over our sublunary realm: dangerous, lush, hopeful, seductive, defiant, mirrors into which we gaze to find our own truths." --Ken Liu, award-winning author of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

About the Author

Usman T. Malik is an award-winning Pakistani-American writer and doctor. His short story collection Midnight Doorways won a World Fantasy Award, and he has won the Bram Stoker Award, the Crawford Award, and the British Fantasy Award, as well as been shortlisted for the Locus and Nebula awards. A Dark and Narrow House is his first novel. Usman lives in Florida with his family.