Smile

About the book

About Smile

Previously published as Dark Father SMILE ... What drives a violent husband and dysfunctional father to pursue his wife and son across a moonlit English landscape? What compels a troubled man to rebuild his broken family, constructing a fractured reality of hollow promises and false hope? What forces an old man suffering from a rare mental disorder to reconcile the terror of the past with the daily torment of being locked in a mental hospital where everyone he sees bears the face of his father? The answers lie in a disturbing journey of suffering and self-discovery that confirms James Cooper's status as one of the most imaginative writers of contemporary horror fiction. Sometimes love can be a terrible thing. Especially when a man's smile is never quite what it seems ... SMILE is a bold, breathtakingly original novel that unfolds with the disturbing unpredictability of a nightmare. Intimate and scary as hell, it is simply a quite dazzling achievement ... *** "James Cooper’s work is odd. It is edgy, individual, outspoken. It has, above all, a quality of unnerving weirdness that makes you question what you know of the world." - Nina Allan, author of The Dollmaker "This is truly dig-beneath-the-bone disturbing. At one point, I felt as if every character couldn't be trusted, a paranoiac and punishing effect ... In short, I loved this very real and personal book. It does what the best dark fiction should do: conjure terror from plausible episodes, from characterisation that rings true." - Gary Fry, author of Conjure House "James Cooper's stories ae original and daring. Clearly a writer to watch." - Graham Joyce, author of The Facts of Life “It’s been quite a while since I’ve encountered stories like this, tales that ignore topical tastes in favour of a strange view of humanity that’s timeless, classical and mysteriously sad.” - Christopher Fowler, author of The Bryant & May Series

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