The Sundial

<p>In <i>The Sundial</i> Shirley Jackson, author of <i>We Have Always Lived in the Castle</i>, blends family politics and apocalyptic terror to create a disturbing world of sinister relations and the macabre.<br><br>'An amazing writer' Neil Gaiman<br><br>Mrs Halloran has inherited the great Halloran house on the death of her son, much to the disgust of her daughter-in-law, the delight of her wicked granddaughter and the confusion of the rest of the household. But when the original owner - long dead - arrives to announce the world is ending and only the house and its occupants will be saved, they find themselves in a nightmare of strange marble statues, mysterious house guests and the beautiful, unsettling Halloran sundial which seems to be at the centre of it all. <br><br>Shirley Jackson's chilling tales have the power to unsettle and terrify unlike any other. She was born in California in 1916. When her short story <i>The Lottery </i>was first published in <i>The New Yorker</i> in 1948, readers were so horrified they sent her hate mail; it has since become one of the greatest American stories of all time. Her first novel, <i>The Road Through the Wall</i>, was published in the same year and was followed by five more: <i>Hangsaman</i>, <i>The Bird's Nest</i>, <i>The Sundial</i>, <i>The Haunting of Hill House </i>and <i>We Have Always Lived in the Castle</i>, widely seen as her masterpiece. Shirley Jackson died in her sleep at the age of 48.<br><br>'The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable ... It is a place where things are not what they seem; even on a morning that is sunny and clear there is always the threat of darkness looming, of things taking a turn for the worse' A. M. Homes<br><br>'Shirley Jackson is unparalleled as a leader in the field of beautifully written, quiet, cumulative shudders' Dorothy Parker<br><br>'Shirley Jackson's stories are among the most terrifying ever written' Donna Tartt</p>