ÒDear sick soul, you have met the universe.Ó Farah Rose SmithÕs THE ALMANAC OF DUST is a stunning work of visionary imagination reminiscent of the great Angela Carter. This numinous, experimental novelette presents the dissolution and loss of a coupleÕs intimate relationship, all set in a dust-choked world, like a nightmare-hybrid-landscape of BeckettÕs Endgame and HodgsonÕs The Night Land. In the backgroundÑvia intersectional notes about and quotes from the titular, fictional tomeÑa bleak philosophy emerges, driven by a paradoxically dynamic, melancholic mental illness. An uncanny environmental/metaphysical catastrophe (internalized as self-neglect, grief, violence, and regret) dominates SmithÕs wonderfully disjointed, powerful story/treatise. The Almanac of Dust is a book to cherish, and Farah Rose Smith is a distinctive, literary talent to watch.Ó
-Jon Padgett, author of THE SECRET OF VENTRILOQUISM and founder of Thomas Ligotti Online