In this collection of stories, D. Harlan Wilson deconditions the boundaries of reality with the same offbeat methodology that energized his first book, The Kafka Effekt. Stranger on the Loose is an absurdist account of urban and suburban social dynamics and of the effects that contemporary image-culture has on the (in)human condition. These stories operate on a plane of existence that resists, and in many cases breaks, the laws of causality.

Parrots teach college courses. Flâneurs impersonate bowling pins. Bodybuilders sneak into people's homes and strike poses at their leisure. Passive-aggressive glaciers and miniature elephant-humans antagonize the seedy streets of Suburbia. Apes disguised as scientists reincarnate Walt Disney, who discovers that he is a Chinese box full of disguised Walt Disneys . . . Wilson's imagination is a rare specimen. The acorns of his fiction are planted in the soil of normalcy, but what grows out of that soil is a dark, witty, otherworldly jungle.

Reviews

"Stranger on the Loose is an excellent chance to wallow in the stream-of-consciousness of one clever, creative sumbitch." —DIAGRAM

"D. Harlan Wilson has carved out a fictional style that is completely without peer. Fans of the surreal, the irreal, the weird and the absurd—not to mention anyone who is tired of the giant cookie cutter that is contemporary fiction—should sit up and take notice." —TERROR TALES

"Satirical, lyrical, and above all clever, these stories shine. The mood is dark, the satire is priceless, and this book is a must buy." —CROSSROADS MAGIC

"Stranger on the Loose is another offering of weird and offbeat short stories from the unique mind of D. Harlan Wilson. In fact, his work is so bizarre that, like D. F. Lewis, he ought to possess his own genre. In certain circles his fiction has been described as 'irrealism.' Whatever you might call it, reading these stories is akin to taking a journey out of reality and into some place twisted beyond recognition." —WHISPERS OF WICKEDNESS

"Inventive and adroitly crafted, this collection of short stories is so mind-bogglingly weird that I couldn’t put it down. " —NTH DEGREE