THE DOUBLE

A student travels to Estonia to investigate his violent father's mysterious upbringing. A woman is possessed by visions of her young brother's brutal death at a lake in Finland. A bride plumbs the depths of her loathing for her husband on a journey across Africa. A lonely boy is haunted by dreams of a disturbing new classmate who sleeps with their teacher.

Each of the stories in THE DOUBLE echoes a literary voice from the past: Chekhov, Dostoyevsky, Wells, Milton, Freud. Each of them is unnerving, and unforgettable. Ranging from rural Australia to Eastern Europe and beyond, from the dark past of the Soviet era to a terrifying vision of the near future, THE DOUBLE marks the arrival of a unique and bewitching talent.

Maria Takolander is a senior lecturer in literature at Deakin University in Geelong. She is the author of a work of literary criticism and two poetry collections. Her poems have featured in annual best-of anthologies for the past seven years. Maria is currently the May blogger in residence for Southerly literary journal (http://southerlyjournal.com.au/)