VERTICAL Death And The Flower Novel (Hardcover)

About Death and the Flower Novel (Hardcover)

Death and the Flower is a collection of six short stories centered on the themes of family and peril and is written by Koji Suzuki. The title is derived from a Keith Jarrett album of the same name.

In “Disposable Diapers and Race Car Replica” a father goes out on his motorcycle to buy diapers for his child and is struck by a car on the way. What seems at first like an unfortunate car accident turns out to have been orchestrated by a band of heartless young men, one of whom the father used to tutor.

In “Irregular Breathing Pattern,” the artificial respirator machine in a certain hospital room keeps making odd noises that confuse the hospital staff. It turns out that someone had recently died in that very room.

In the second longest story in the book, “Key West,” a father and a daughter are traveling through the US and make a stop in Key West. As the two repose on a beach, the father sees an island about three hundred feet off and decides to swim to it. What he gets to the island he has myriad phantasmagorical encounters, which turn out to have all been hallucinations resulting from a sea snake bite. He only wakes up to his daughters concerned voice.

The longest story in this series is “Beyond the Darkness.” In it, a married couple spend their days in fear of an unidentified stalker who knows details of their lives that he really ought not to. The husband finally discovers who the stalker is: a photomat employee who’s processed their film over the years.