The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories

Horacio Quiroga wrote from the Argentine jungle about madness, disease, animals and the many casual ways nature kills people, in stories that pair clinical calm with genuine horror. Often called the Poe of South America, he lived a life nearly as grim as his fiction. These tales are short, merciless, and impossible to shake. Guillermo del Toro calls him one of the very best storytellers, praising his otherworldly images and gut-punch endings.