The Age of Calamities - by Senaa Ahmad (Paperback)

About the Book

"Collection of short stories by Senaa Ahmad, including "Let's Play Dead," "The Napoleons Are Multiplying," "The Wolves," "Our Lady of Resplendent Misfortune," "Inside the House of the Historian," "It Was Probably a Very Nice Day," "Not Everything Is Ancient History," "The Houseguest," and "Choose Your Own Apocalypse.""-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Written by an inimitable new voice, The Age of Calamities is a genre-defying, mind-bending collection of absurdist, funny, and speculative short stories.

In this bold debut collection, Senaa Ahmad pushes the boundaries of history and its figures, sending the reader on a thrilling ride. In "Let's Play Dead," Henry VIII wants Anne Boleyn gone, but there's a tiny problem--she keeps coming back to life no matter what he does. "Choose Your Own Apocalypse" hurls readers back to 1945, where they assume the role of a technician for the Manhattan Project, confronted with labyrinthine paths and harrowing outcomes. And "Inside the House of the Historian" invites us to a dinner party turned murder mystery full of figures like Nefertiti, Queen Victoria, John Adams, and Marilyn Monroe. These stories and others entice readers to confront the past, the present, and themselves all at once. Zany and haunting, inviting and brilliant, each poignant tale delves into the surreal and tragicomic nature of the present through the lens of yesterday.

The Age of Calamities is an evocation of life and death on history's unsteady margins, of how to reckon with the blunt-force trauma of ill-fated times. Fiercely clever and wildly inventive, this debut establishes Senaa Ahmad as a literary force.

Review Quotes

One of Book Riot's Best New Books of January
One of Bustle's "Most Anticipated Books Of Winter 2025-26"
One of Harper's Bazaar, Dazed and LitHub's Most Anticipated Books of 2026
One of Debutiful's Most Anticipated Debut Books of the Year

"Surrealism can easily feel showy and gratuitous, but Ahmad keeps a steady eye on her central theme: how we behave when everything comes crashing down and nothing makes sense. . . . The best of these stories feature refugees from war and other disasters. The cheerful, even sprightly tone only heightens the visceral anxiety, and each story seems to end when we reach the heart of desolation."
--Charlie Jane Anders, The Washington Post

"Nothing short of delightful."
--Bustle

"A series of funhouse mirrors that, in refracting elements of the past, lay bare something true and at times revelatory. It's not hard to see why the lead story was plucked out of the slush pile at the Paris Review. In these meditations on character, context, and contingency, we can glimpse a great mind at work--one influenced by the likes of short-story geniuses Angela Carter and Karen Russell, but also wholly her own."
--Chloe Hadavas, Foreign Policy

"A pleasure to explore each [story]."
--Joe Hoeffner, BookBrowse

"Each part of the collection is filled to the brim with the absurd."
--Lina Saleh, The Chicago Review of Books

"Exceptional . . . a debut teeming with strange delights."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"An ambitious collection of stories that take novel approaches to significant moments in history. . . . With each story, Ahmad offers a satisfying exploration of feminine defiance. The result is arresting."
--Publishers Weekly

"Ahmad's genre-defying short stories teeter on the brink of fiction, twisting time and space in a way that will keep readers on their toes. A surreal collection steeped in dark humor, this book is perfect for history buffs who need a chuckle."
--Booklist

"Senaa Ahmad's stories are dazzlingly inventive. . . .These stories make it clear how ancient history and myths still linger in contemporary life--but also propose the radical possibility that we may yet escape or alter old patterns and old wounds."
-Kelly Link, award-winning author of The Book of Love and White Cat, Black Dog

"Senaa Ahmad's stories are a wonder. Her prose is wild, incantatory, upending. Each turn of the page surprised me anew, and carried me off in completely unexpected directions--what a delight!"
--Claire Oshetsky, award-winning author of Evil Genius and Chouette

"Anne Boleyn's head whispers to her body from across the room; a village of Napoleons squabble in a broken-down house; a historian's home slowly fills with water; a young woman hosts an apocalypse-themed dinner party, where guests choose their endings from a menu: if reality is finally destroyed here, what Senaa Ahmad builds from the wreckage just might be more gorgeous, more crazy, and more necessary than the world we've left behind."
--Ben Marcus, award-winning author of Notes from the Fog and The Flame Alphabet

"A delightful mashup of past and present, prosaic and bizarre, The Age of Calamities celebrates women at their highs and lows across history. Ahmad is an expansive talent, her stories strikingly original, her premises as wildly imaginative as her characters are deeply human. Take a chance on this wild ride and don't worry, Ahmad will see you safely through. Just watch out for dueling Napoleons and don't let Joan of Arc's ghosts take possession of your body along the way."
--Gwen E. Kirby, author of Shit Cassandra Saw

"An astounding debut, so full of wonder, outrage, invention, fireworks, sheer brilliance. Ahmad breaks time and turns history upside down and inside out. This book is so beautifully written and so completely fresh, I was left stunned at the sheer originality of Ahmad's extraordinary voice. You have never seen anything like this before."
--Edward Carey, author of Little

"Playful, daring and incisive, I romped through these delightful stories. Ahmad is a true, unique talent."
--Kat Dunn, author of Hungerstone

"An addictive blend of imagination and wit, written in a singularly compelling voice. The author's masterful command of the short story and of the historical figures she revitalizes will make you want to read and re-read this transcendent collection."
--Katherine J. Chen, author of Joan

"History rubs shoulders with the present in this surprising and deliciously strange collection of stories. The absurd shows itself gloriously, beautifully and with a great deal of fun, on every page. But it also casts shadows. These odd stories are powerful. Short, yet far from small, their bigness will pull you in then leave you moved, perplexed and full of admiration. Wonderful writing that had me in its grasp to the very last sentence."
--Nydia Hetherington, author of Sycorax

About the Author

Senaa Ahmad's short fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, McSweeney's, Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Best Canadian Stories, and elsewhere. She has received the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, the Speculative Literature Foundation, and the Carl Brandon Society's Octavia Butler Scholarship. Her work was also the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and the Sunburst Award and a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Fiction. The Age of Calamities is her first book.