The Salvation of Pisco Gabar

Twelve evocative and unforgettable tales of adventure, self-discovery, and flawed humanity by one of the twentieth century’s most able storytellers

The literary career of the remarkable Geoffrey Household spanned more than half a century, from the 1930s to the late 1980s, and it began with the publication of his first short story, “The Salvation of Pisco Gabar,” in the Atlantic Monthly in 1936. A powerful, moving tale of a fateful bargain struck between a nonbelieving entrepreneur and a mad Indian priest at a treacherous impasse in the mountains of Peru, it begins a sterling collect of short fiction by a successor of Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Here are a dozen masterful yarns and parables that span the world, transporting the reader from the quaint, picturesque hamlets of Europe to the remote villages of South America, from the bustle of New York City to the Mediterranean dockside. Whether he’s spinning the tale of a downtrodden Cockney and his affinity for a caged marsupial in the local zoo, revealing the bizarre truth about a werewolf prowling the dark Carpathian woods, or recalling the charming courtship of a tough yet virginal teenage street waif and a drunken Basque “pirate,” Geoffrey Household thrills, excites, and continually surprises with short fiction rich in color and consequence.