Machines in the Head

Described by Brian Aldiss as "De Quincey's heir and Kafka's sister," junkie, depressive, radical, enigma, cult figure, genre-bending experimental writer and artist—few women writers have gathered the same air of mystique, so often the preserve of male counter-culture figures, as Helen Woods, more commonly known by her adopted pen name and persona: Anna Kavan. This anthology of Anna Kavan's short fiction and journalism marks the 50 years since her death in 1968, offering an accessible introduction to readers new to her work and a timely survey of her diverse literary talents for her fans. From moving portraits of clinical depression to phantasmagoric visions of science-fiction wonder, the selection is taken from across Kavan's oeuvre, representing the best of her writing and showing the range of her style. Readers will encounter oblique and elegiac tales of breakdown and incarceration from Asylum Piece (1940), moving evocations of wartime from I Am Lazarus (1945),...