“Markov moves fluidly between pitch-black humor and deeply felt depictions of grief, and between the mythological and the viscerally embodied. They find in Slavic legend a rich vocabulary for queer desire, loss, and transformation. The result is a collection that refuses to look away from darkness while still, against the odds, reaching for hope.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review

“A stunning, thrilling, and eerie collection of short stories that will delight readers of gothic fiction.” —KIRKUS

A murderous nine-headed monster from legend permits a podcast interview. The mall has opened its doors, and nothing, not even certain death, will keep the shoppers away. A dead man’s curse drives his descendants to drown themselves, no matter how far from home they flee. An eerie haunted house attraction receives an even more unnerving guest. A grieving widower, knife in hand, undertakes a painstaking, gruesome ritual to appease the gods. If seeking a boon from Baba Yaga sounds nerve-shattering, imagine having to live under her roof.

These thirteen tales from Bulgarian author Haralambi Markov meld Slavic mythology, pitch-black humor, and moving explorations of queer identity with vistas rooted in body horror and nightmares, yielding results that are sometimes deeply disquieting, sometimes surprisingly hopeful, and always strikingly novel. As Hugo and World Fantasy award-winning editor Ann VanderMeer states in her introduction, Markov “writes with such power and intensity that you can’t imagine where they get the courage to put such words on paper. Their work challenges us to face our fears, our insecurities, and not look away.”

“Markov’s collection is stylish, macabre, and startling as a cigarette burn. THE LANGUAGE OF KNIVES ranges across the landscape of death, a late-night conversation between grief and memory. A haunting debut.”

—Angela “A.G.” Slatter, award-winning author of THE COLD HOUSE

“Haunted and horny, melancholy and mysterious, Haralambi Markov’s THE LANGUAGE OF KNIVES is occasionally like being flayed on the inside of your eyelids, but in a good way. So weird. So queer. So nauseating. And so, so beautiful.”

—C. S. E. Cooney, World Fantasy Award-winning author of SAINT DEATH’S DAUGHTER

“Markov investigates the body and the self, unflinching from what makes these fragile cages beautiful, and what can transform them.”

—Martin Cahill, author of USA Today Bestseller AUDITION FOR THE FOX

“Themes of mythology, traditional stories, and fairy tales resonate across the collection, as do complex family relationships and the idea of wrestling with history and legacy … Markov uses the tropes of legends, fairy tales, and speculative fiction to good effect throughout, showing how they can act as lenses to better understand ourselves and the human condition.”

—A. C. Wise, Bram Stoker, Nebula, Shirley Jackson, and World Fantasy award-nominated author of THE GHOST SEQUENCES and WENDY, DARLING

Haralambi Markov is a Bulgarian fiction writer and editor with a background in content creation. In 2014, they became the first ever Bulgarian accepted to attend the Clarion Writers’ Workshop. Their short story “The Language of Knives” was long-listed for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story, and their essay “My Father, My Private Monster” made it onto the Bram Stoker Award long list for non-fiction in 2025. Their work has appeared in REACTOR, UNCANNY MAGAZINE, EVIL IN TECHNICOLOR, WEIRD FICTION REVIEW, STORIES FOR CHIP, EURASIAN MONSTERS, and FRACTURED REVERIES. They were part of the team of BonFIYAH 2021. Mythic Delirium Books will release their debut collection of short fiction, THE LANGUAGE OF KNIVES: STORIES, in July 2026. Follow them on Instagram at @somethinghaunted.

Cover art and design by Diana Naneva