And One Day We Will Die - by Patrick Barb (Paperback)

About the Book

Celebrating the music of Neutral Milk Hotel, this anthology's weird stories are inspired by the band's cult classic songs.

Book Synopsis

Celebrate the Strangeness of Being Anything at All

Spotlighting the bizarrely beautiful and beautifully bizarre music and lyrics of indie folk rock band Neutral Milk Hotel, And One Day We Will Die features 22 short stories from the realms of weird, phantasmagoric, and speculative fiction, all inspired by the cult classic songs written and performed by Jeff Mangum and company. From alternate histories where happy endings are allowed and mythological re-imaginings that center love over destruction to awe-inspiring contemplations of the potential in the present and dark and unfathomable future visions, all featured authors selected one song from the beloved Neutral Milk Hotel songbook to use as a springboard for their tales.

Editor and publisher Patrick Barb has assembled a diverse array of authors and tales, with the love of Neutral Milk Hotel acting as connective tissue, solidifying into an all-star album's worth of writing talent. Drawing from On Avery Island, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Ferris Wheel on Fire, and even some of the band's bootleg recordings, these stories speak to the spark struck by Mangum's haunting, inspiring, and perplexing creative output that burns with a passionate intensity through the prose offerings within.

Featuring fiction by:

Lillah Lawson

Helen Victoria Murray

M. Lopes da Silva

Camila Hamel

Briar Ripley Page

Joe Koch

Tiffany Morris

D. Matthew Urban

Christi Nogle

Tim Major

Dan Coxon

Matthew Kressel

Lindz McLeod

Erin Brown

Brian Evenson

Edward Barnfield

Dale Light

Corey Farrenkopf

Ai Jiang

Michael Horita

Richard Thomas

John Langan

And a Foreword by

Adam Clair (author of Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery)

Review Quotes

Praise for And One Day We Will Die:

"As multifarious and seductive as the lyrics of Jeff Mangum, these stories all stand beautifully on their own while together producing a cryptic spectacle worthy of their inspiration."

-Molly Tanzer, author of Creatures of Will and Temper and "Jirel and the Mirror of Truth"

"Every author milks their surreal sonic source material with tales ranging from horrifically weird to heartbreakingly poignant in a collection that's anything but neutral."

-Brian McAuley, author of Curse of the Reaper and Candy Cain Kills

"Delightful and poignant, And One Day We Will Die riffs beautifully on the enigmatic songs of Neutral Milk Hotel. Each story shapes its own strange and brilliant world, yet carries the poetry and transcendence of the band's legacy. Both fans and nonfans of the band will lose themselves in these dark, lovely tales."

-Ivy Grimes, author of Glass Stories