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Twelve Ghostly Tales
Estrid Balslev

    Translated from Danish into English by the Author

    Edited by John Robert Colombo

 1. In the Flesh
 2. The Finger.
 3. Who Was He?
 4. The Archivist and the Girl (The Tale of a Woman’s Revenge).
 5. The Duke of Dombury
 6. The Medieval Philosopher
 7. The Hazel Grove
 8. Gerhard and Cecilia (A Sad Love Story with a Happy Ending)
 9. The Doll (An East German Elegy)
10. The Twin Mysteri (A Study in Evil)
11. The Genius and the Businessman
12. A House in the Country

Quality Trade Paperback, 136 pp.
ISBN 978-1-55246-945-3  $20.00

     

ABOUT THE BOOK

Can you be haunted by ghosts you happen to call to life from your own inner universe? This is what befalls people in these tales. And they take it very differently: Some are scared to death, others experience the greatest happiness ever, etc. Our inner universes are so very different, and as a matter of fact, we do not know much about the depths of our own minds. The main characters of the stories are people we could all meet: A successful architect, a bureaucrat, an old fisherman, an average secondary school teacher… They all appear in realistic environments, but their ghosts tear apart the curtain between real life and – well, what? That is the question. Nine of the stories take place in Denmark, the native country of the author. Two take place in England and one in the former German Democratic Republic shortly after the re- union of East and West Germany.

Estrid Balslev (1936 - 2011) was a Danish author , poet and punk singer. She is also a former secondary school teacher, still very fond of teenagers, whose innocence of heart she finds unfathomable. She published two volumes of poetry, contributes lyrics to magazines, joins poetry slams. She writes a yearly children’s play for local kids to perform at a church festival. She is considered lead singer of "Night of the Red Hot Dogs", a punk band of five much younger guys and herself. She lives in the country with her husband, two dogs and two cats.