A young woman is haunted by the disappearance of her grandmother, a brilliant mathematician whose research uncovered the basis for parallel universes. A botanist travels across the seas in search of an elusive, deadly flower that was also his late father' s obsession. A talented painter produces his best work – unsettling masterpieces with strange, fantastical elements – years after he was last seen in person. In this gothic-inspired collection of stories, John Richards pushes the limits of what short fiction can be. With settings that range from rural France to medieval Italy to nineteenth-century Borneo, The Gorgon Flower is an impressively crafted, engrossing debut by a bold new writer.