Short stories, no translation rights, no Australian rights, US (and first world) hardback published this month. Sometimes writing is so extraordinary that you just have to publish it. Even if it breaks all the rules. BLACK JUICE is such a collection. However few copies we sell of this book, Margo Lanagan is the sort of writer that every list has to publish if that list cares about good writing. These are stories of immense confidence, the faith they have in the believability of the worlds they describe is such that they explain nothing, concede nothing but still leave you entranced because of the beauty of the writing and the intense clarity of the characters. Whether a family singing their daughter to her death, a young boy braving pestilential angels to give his grandmother the death she deserves and himself the freedom he deserves, or clowns on a sniper spree at a clown convention these are people you believe in, peopling stories of quite extraordinary power.