Special Moss

Special Moss is a collection of five stories and seven poems by Amber Later. Each narrative finds its structure in a particular genre pastiche before quickly expanding into something more complex and unclassifiable: The title story recounts a woman’s history with homeopathic medicine in the mode of a tragicomic fairy tale, while in “Dream of an Infinite Horizon” a fast paced sci-fi auto race gives way to an abstract, spiritual trek across an endless desert. “Two Hells and Heaven” is a dream taking place in an askew caricature of seventeenth century France, where a violent love triangle plays out over multiple decades. The poems at the end are distinguished from Later’s fiction by a complementary but more personal, if oblique, voice, as the author reflects on themes of memory, interpretation, and sexuality. Amber Later is a writer and editor living in Manhattan, New York; Special Moss is her first book.