The Library

Winner of the 2003 World Fantasy Award and Longlisted for 2004 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

Original title: Biblioteka. Publishers in English: Polaris (2002), Ministry of Whimsy (US, 2002, in Leviathan 3), PS Publishing (UK, 2006, as part of the mega-collection Impossible Stories).

A cycle of six thematically linked stories, droll renditions of the nightmares ensuing upon misplaced, or (of course) excessive, bibliophilia. A writer encounters a website where all his possible future books are on display; a lonely man faces an infinite flow of hardback books through his mailbox; an ordinary library turns by night into an archive of souls; the Devil sets about raising standards of infernal literacy; one book houses all books; a connoisseur of hardcovers strives to expel a lone paperback from his collection.