A Child Across the Sky Philip Strayhorn makes a series of notorious horror films that bring him everything; love,
fame, money. Then he takes a gun and blows his head off.
Why? His best friend Weber Gregston hopes the answer is on the video tapes Phil has left him. Instead he finds messages from beyond the grave, and that the evil in Phil's last film is not just slasher gore. He has created something that threatens his friends' lives. And if Weber doesn't put it right, and fast, that evil will extend far beyond a handful of people in Hollywood. A Child Across the Sky is a brilliant tale of wonder and fear. It is also one of the most important novels of fantastic fiction in recent years. 'A unique blend of horror, fantasy and reality. Reading Jonathan Carroll is like dreaming with your eyes open' Lisa Tuttle
Paperback - Gollancz Millenium (2000)
The Land of Laughs For schoolteacher Thomas Abbey there was no writer to equal Marshall France, a legendary author of children's books who hid himself away in the small town of Galen and died of a heart attack at the age of forty-four. Tom and his girlfriend Saxony, wanting to write France's biography, arrive in Galen, where they discover the writer's fiercely protective daughter Anna is waiting for them. Before long, they realise that this idyllic little town and its inhabitants - both man and animal - are not quite what they seem: France's magic has spread beyond the printed page … 'Carroll's first novel is an audacious game of puppets and masks, in which the roots of fiction, and the relationship between people and their favourite books, and the nature of belief, is laid bare in a way that is both heart-warming and utterly chilling. It's a book about love and abandonment: a ghost story, a romance, and a tale of the bad place - the place where dreams come true. The Land of Laughs is a book for anyone who has ever believed that a favourite book could be a safe place to go when things get hard.'
Nell Gaiman
'A marvellous, exciting, beautifully written book, and absolutely riveting.' Ruth Rendell
'Part horror, part fantasy, part mystery, part love story, his novels reel you in quickly and effortlessly ... working a rich vein - the horror lurking on the shadowy edges of daily life.' Washington Post
'Tricky and undeniably high-minded, Carroll's novels demand, and deserve, to be taken seriously.' New York Times Book Review
’The sort of book an inveterate fiction reader hopes to escape with on a rainy day.' Los Angeles Times
'Jonathan Carroll is a profound, ironic, scathing poet of the terror of the prison of mortality.' The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
'Blending fairy tale, drama, magic realism and occult horror, the fiction of Jonathan Carroll is like no one else's. It begins with a careful sketch of 'real' life, takes a sudden turn into the fantastic, then careers toward ever more disorienting wonders until a final revelation or enigma' Washington Post
’Beguiling and original, this is an intricate, challenging, ultimately chilling tale, full of startling juxtapositions and surprises’ Washington Post
’I can’t remember when I’ve been so blown away by a fantasy novel’ Stephen King
A Child Across the Sky
A Child Across the Sky