Instruction Manual for Swallowing

***WINNER of the 2011 Arts Foundation Fellowship in Short Story Writing*** **Short-Listed for the 2010 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award** *Long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize* Robotic insects, in-growing cutlery, flesh-serving waiters in a zombie cafe... Welcome to the surreal, misshapen universe of Adam Marek’s first collection; a bestiary of hybrids from the techno-crazed future and mythical past; a users’ guide to the seemingly obvious (and the world of illogic implicit within it). Whether fantastical or everyday in setting, Marek’s stories lead us down to the engine room just beneath modern consciousness, a place of both atavism and familiarity, where the body is fluid, the spirit mechanised, and beasts often tell us more about our humanity than anything we can teach ourselves.