Description
Description
Kafkaesque slow-burn domestic horror from a master of the uncanny. Mr. Montessori and his family return home from a trip to the beach to discover that their sofa is different. Once dark and contemporary, it's now antique, green and yellow, and smelling faintly of damp. Its appearance and origins are a mystery. A joke? An inverted theft? A break in the fabric of reality? Yes, the police take the "crime" seriously. But what happens next lies outside their expertise. Strange sounds in the night. A half-bathroom toilet with a mind of its own. Odd, fleeting glimpses of something (or someone) in mirrors. The inexplicable vision of Montessori's neighbor: He swears he saw a burglar. . . . Montessori's quest for answers will take him to a dank highway overpass in decayed upstate New York, a very strange dry-cleaning supply concern in outermost Queens, and into the depths of an eerie, warped forest where time and space no longer connect, all while putting his ever-more-troubled marriage and young family in grave danger. But that's what it costs to find out if we own our possessions -- or if they own us. Munson emerges as a master stylist in this tense, taut work of surreal humor and psychological horror.
About the Author
About the Author
Sam Munson is the author of Dog Symphony (New Directions), The War Against the Assholes (Saga), and The November Criminals (Doubleday). His fiction has appeared in The Baffler, Granta, Guernica, McSweeney's, n+1, Tablet, and elsewhere. He is the co-founder of The New York Review of Dreams (www.rateyourdream.com).
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"The Sofa is a darkly hilarious exploration of the uncanny in the strictly Freudian sense of unheimlich: those points at which the coziest recesses of domestic comfort abruptly become portals into a nightmare realm."
--Geoff Shullenberger, Compact "Really, really creeped me out . . . through his use of language, repetition, and pacing, Munson weaves a spell."
--John Warner, Chicago Tribune "[An] eerily effective update on the suburban Gothic genre. Mr. Munson seeds the otherwise ordinary setting with ominously recurring symbols and side characters--a mysterious bowler hat, a man with a mole near his mouth... the story sustains its atmosphere of disquiet by refusing to give away its secrets until the final sentences."
--Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal "A slow burn of psychological horror, existential dread, and uncertainty . . . simple, yet deceptive."
--Brock Kingsley, The Chicago Review of Books "Recalls well-told psychological horror... perfect for fans of Franz Kafka and Haruki Murakami."
--Booklist "While any good work of horror (especially psychological horror) should affect its reader soul-deep, The Sofa weaves the reader into its very fabric. It is consuming, so the reader is consumed at the same rate as Montessori. It's a blessing that The Sofa can be devoured in a sitting or two. Otherwise many more readers might lose their minds."
--Nick Rees Gardner, Independent Book Review
"In this tight, stylish psychological horror story, a Mr. Montessori and his family come home to find their contemporary couch has been replaced with a damp antique sofa. Strange happenings continue in their apartment, and Montessori goes looking for explanations across the city and beyond."
--Hailey Eber, New York Post "Munson sticks the landing with a creepy finale that mixes macabre humor and an unsettling reckoning with mortality. There's plenty to admire in this offbeat ghost story."
--Publishers Weekly "A masterpiece. The Sofa moves with the inevitability and elegance of a recurring nightmare. When you look closely at the clear prose you notice alien scales beneath."
--Michael Clune, author of Pan
"The Sofa captures the vertiginous moment when the world shifts and seems to turn against you, when your bad luck stops feeling random and instead starts to seem like the working of a malevolent consciousness peeking at you through the veil. It is unsettling, funny, and sickening by turns--and it made me really appreciate my old familiar couch, which I truly hope no-one steals out of my apartment anytime soon."
--Kristen Roupenian, author of Cat Person and Other Stories "When his family's sofa goes missing, Mr. Montessori sets out to solve the mystery. His efforts make a kind of absurdist hero journey, a history of accidents, coincidences, and personal injuries. The Sofa is a fantastic, funny, and smart work, a story driven forward by Sam Munson's gift for building narrative reality in an increasingly unreal world. The Sofa is a wonderful book."
--Donald Antrim, author of The Emerald Light in the Air "Munson's prose is understated, competent, comic, and beautiful. In other words, The Sofa is everything you want from literary horror. Perfect dementia-core."
--Gabriel Smith, author of Brat "A weird hug of a novel. A nightmare, warm and cozy."
--Adam Levin, author of Mount Chicago
"The Sofa resides at the intersection of The Diary of a Nobody, The Shining, and Eraserhead. It is subtle and gripping and generally quite fabulous."
--Simon Doonan, author of The Camp 100 - Glorious Flamboyance from Louis XIV to Lil Nas X * A Best Book of 2025. --Compact
* Indie Next Pick, December 2025. --American Booksellers Association
* A Most Anticipated Horror Book of 2025. --LitHub
* One of the Best Horror Books of 2025. --Men's Journal
* A Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2025. --Our Culture, The Reactor
--Geoff Shullenberger, Compact "Really, really creeped me out . . . through his use of language, repetition, and pacing, Munson weaves a spell."
--John Warner, Chicago Tribune "[An] eerily effective update on the suburban Gothic genre. Mr. Munson seeds the otherwise ordinary setting with ominously recurring symbols and side characters--a mysterious bowler hat, a man with a mole near his mouth... the story sustains its atmosphere of disquiet by refusing to give away its secrets until the final sentences."
--Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal "A slow burn of psychological horror, existential dread, and uncertainty . . . simple, yet deceptive."
--Brock Kingsley, The Chicago Review of Books "Recalls well-told psychological horror... perfect for fans of Franz Kafka and Haruki Murakami."
--Booklist "While any good work of horror (especially psychological horror) should affect its reader soul-deep, The Sofa weaves the reader into its very fabric. It is consuming, so the reader is consumed at the same rate as Montessori. It's a blessing that The Sofa can be devoured in a sitting or two. Otherwise many more readers might lose their minds."
--Nick Rees Gardner, Independent Book Review
"In this tight, stylish psychological horror story, a Mr. Montessori and his family come home to find their contemporary couch has been replaced with a damp antique sofa. Strange happenings continue in their apartment, and Montessori goes looking for explanations across the city and beyond."
--Hailey Eber, New York Post "Munson sticks the landing with a creepy finale that mixes macabre humor and an unsettling reckoning with mortality. There's plenty to admire in this offbeat ghost story."
--Publishers Weekly "A masterpiece. The Sofa moves with the inevitability and elegance of a recurring nightmare. When you look closely at the clear prose you notice alien scales beneath."
--Michael Clune, author of Pan
"The Sofa captures the vertiginous moment when the world shifts and seems to turn against you, when your bad luck stops feeling random and instead starts to seem like the working of a malevolent consciousness peeking at you through the veil. It is unsettling, funny, and sickening by turns--and it made me really appreciate my old familiar couch, which I truly hope no-one steals out of my apartment anytime soon."
--Kristen Roupenian, author of Cat Person and Other Stories "When his family's sofa goes missing, Mr. Montessori sets out to solve the mystery. His efforts make a kind of absurdist hero journey, a history of accidents, coincidences, and personal injuries. The Sofa is a fantastic, funny, and smart work, a story driven forward by Sam Munson's gift for building narrative reality in an increasingly unreal world. The Sofa is a wonderful book."
--Donald Antrim, author of The Emerald Light in the Air "Munson's prose is understated, competent, comic, and beautiful. In other words, The Sofa is everything you want from literary horror. Perfect dementia-core."
--Gabriel Smith, author of Brat "A weird hug of a novel. A nightmare, warm and cozy."
--Adam Levin, author of Mount Chicago
"The Sofa resides at the intersection of The Diary of a Nobody, The Shining, and Eraserhead. It is subtle and gripping and generally quite fabulous."
--Simon Doonan, author of The Camp 100 - Glorious Flamboyance from Louis XIV to Lil Nas X * A Best Book of 2025. --Compact
* Indie Next Pick, December 2025. --American Booksellers Association
* A Most Anticipated Horror Book of 2025. --LitHub
* One of the Best Horror Books of 2025. --Men's Journal
* A Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2025. --Our Culture, The Reactor
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Two Dollar Radio
Pub date:
2025-11-11
Length:
162 pages
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