Monsterland: A Journey Around the World's Dark Imagination

Monsters, in all their terrifying glory, have preoccupied humans since we began telling stories. But where did these stories come from?

In Monsterland, award-winning author Nicholas Jubber goes on a journey to discover more about the monsters we've invented, lurking in the dark and the wild places of the earth--giants, dragons, ogres, zombies, ghosts, demons--all with one thing in common: their ability to terrify.

His far-ranging adventure takes him across the world. He sits on the thrones of giants in Cornwall, visits the shrine of a beheaded ogre near Kyoto, travels to an eighteenth-century Balkan vampire's forest dwelling, and paddles among the shapeshifters of the Louisiana bayous. On his travels, he discovers that the stories of the people and places that birthed them are just as fascinating as the creatures themselves.

Artfully written, Monsterland is a fascinating interrogation into why we need these monsters and what they can tell us about ourselves--how they bind communities together as much as they cruelly cast away outsiders.

Nicholas Jubber is an award-winning travel writer. Fascinated by history and its relationship with the present, he explores connections -- and misconnections -- across the centuries. In his book, The Fairy Tellers, this fascination carries him from Kashmir to Lapland to find out the history behind some of the world's most beloved, and many long-forgotten, fairy tales. He has been shortlisted three times for the Stanford Dolman Award, and won it for his debut The Prester Quest. He has spoken at literary festivals including Hay-on-Wye and Edinburgh, and has written articles for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Irish Times, among others.