A powerful collection of short stories by Shirley Jackson
"The Lottery," one of the most terrifying stories of the twentieth century, created a sensation when it was first published in the New Yorker. "Powerful and haunting," and "nights of unrest" were typical reader responses. This collection, the only one to appear during Jackson's lifetime, unites "The Lottery" with twenty-four equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate her remarkable range—from the hilarious to the truly horrible—and power as a storyteller.
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“The creepy, dangerous fiction of Jackson is brilliantly encapsulated by this quietly devastating story in which a community, following an unquestioned ritual of generations, wreaks havoc on itself—just as Schiff describes in her nonfiction account of a close-knit town, a tragedy, and the seemingly ever-present wish to inflict harm…The willingness to go along with, even participate, in disaster echoes the most disturbing aspects of the period Schiff recounts.”
— Library Journal
“In her art, as in her life, Shirley Jackson was an absolute original. She listened to her own voice, kept her own counsel, isolated herself from all intellectual and literary currents…She was unique.”
— Newsweek“The stories remind one of the elemental terrors of childhood.”
— International Herald Tribune“The voice work of Cassandra Campbell, Gabrielle de Cuir, Kathe Mazur, and Stefan Rudnicki — was…superb. The problem was that these stories were such breathtaking marvels that they made virtually everything…seem trivial and inconsequential.”
— Washington Post“Jackson’s great gift is not to create a world of fantasy and terror, but rather to discover the existence of the grotesque in the ordinary world. The grotesque is so powerful here just because it takes off from everyday life and constantly returns there until we do not know ourselves quite where we are.”
— Elizabeth Janeway, author and literary critic“With masterful performances, narrators Cassandra Campbell, Gabrielle de Cuir, Kathe Mazur, and Stefan Rudnicki bring to life the diverse characters and tales that make this collection so powerful and entrancing. Each narrator brings a different but highly complementary style to the material, giving life and meaning to Jackson’s characters and allowing listeners to appreciate the breadth of this work…Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
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Shirley Jackson (1916–1965), a celebrated writer of horror, wrote such classic novels as We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House, as well as one of the most famous short stories in the English language, “The Lottery.” Her work has been adapted to film, television, and theater and has influenced such writers as Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and Richard Matheson.
Cassandra Campbell has won multiple Audie Awards, Earphones Awards, and the prestigious Odyssey Award for narration. She was been named a “Best Voice” by AudioFile magazine and in 2018 was inducted in Audible’s inaugural Narrator Hall of Fame.
Gabrielle de Cuir, award-winning narrator, has narrated over three hundred titles and specializes in fantasy, humor, and titles requiring extensive foreign language and accent skills. She was a cowinner of the Audie Award for best narration in 2011 and a three-time finalist for the Audie and has garnered six AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her “velvet touch” as an actor’s director has earned her a special place in the audiobook world as the foremost producer for bestselling authors and celebrities.
Kathe Mazur has narrated many audiobooks, winning the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2014, being named a finalist for the Audie Award in 2013 and 2015, and winning several AudioFile Earphones Awards. As an actress, she can be seen as DDA Hobbs on The Closer and in the upcoming Major Crimes. She has worked extensively in film, theater, and television, including appearances on Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, House, Brothers and Sisters, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, ER, Monk, and many others.
Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than five thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than nine hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices in 2012.