{"product_id":"black-brane-9781960988614","title":"Black Brane","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeird fiction icon and award-winning author Michael Cisco's \u003ci\u003eBlack Brane\u003c\/i\u003e, begins with the physical pain of a bad foot and later voyages into absurdity, mad science, occultism, and existential dread.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA man lying in a bed of pain flees from physical torment into his own memories, and into speculations about life and reality. He was, once, employed by the Temporary Institute for the Study of Holes, a think tank pursuing research that ranges from occult studies to advanced physics, including black holes-or, as they are known in string theory, black branes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe meets and interacts with the various other members of the institute. Its founder, Dr. Marilyn Shitansky, a formerly homeless woman who claims to have a thinking hole in her brain; its resident occultist, the chain-smoking Daladara with his magic abacus; Ernie Allegre the engineer, who designed and built a decoherence reactor to power the institute; Dr. Liu, the string theorist; the linguist Dr. Corngholm, who can't sit still; and Dr. Shitansky's secretary, Renbrui, who seems to carry a mystery with her wherever she goes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn memory, the speaker finds them again, in a story of physical and emotional pain, of social and quantum entanglement, that turns comic, speculative, and nightmarish. Echoing the work of Blake Crouch and Thomas Ligotti, Michael Cisco shows in\u003ci\u003e Black Brane\u003c\/i\u003e why he's beloved by weird fiction and horror readers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMichael Cisco is an American writer, Deleuzian academic, teacher, and translator living in New York City. He is best known for his first novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Divinity Student\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the International Horror Guild Award for Best First Novel of 1999. His novel \u003ci\u003eThe Great Lover\u003c\/i\u003e was nominated for the 2011 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel of the Year, and declared the Best Weird Novel of 2011 by the Weird Fiction Review. His nonfiction book, \u003ci\u003eWeird Fiction: A Genre Study, \u003c\/i\u003e was nominated for a HWA Stoker award in 2023. \u003ci\u003ePest\u003c\/i\u003e, a novel, was published by CLASH in 2023. He teaches at CUNY Hostos.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Clash Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51475396690194,"sku":"9781960988614","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_e73c3621-3da8-48ad-9128-8cc7bb761879.jpg?v=1752594323","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/black-brane-9781960988614","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}