The Violent Lavender Beast Ernest Hekkanen

Two middle-aged women seek a perfect retreat from the ugly realities of the world - and inevitably fail. The relationship of a married couple deteriorates into a nightmare of distrust and violence because of the refusal to accept change. An impoverished handyman signs his life away to his rich, self-indulgent employer, then is taken advantage of once too often to endure. And a devastating portrait is painted - from four different perspectives - of a family driven over the abyss by drink, depression, and insanity by an enemy which is invisible and abstract but truly terrifying and perfect in its destruction.

These and other violent worlds are exposed relentlessly in The Violent Lavender Beast, a collection of six stories from the distinctive pen and extraordinary imagination of Ernest Hekkanen, who confronts both the deepest, darkest human fears and the petty angers and insecurities that drive people to irrational acts. A dynamic, disturbing, and engrossing collection from one of Canada's most exciting new writers.