The Tainted Earth features eight stories written in the tradition of European Fantastique, blending history with the uncanny, and the beautiful with the hideous and strange. The collection also includes a novella in three cantos, a bizarre story about one man’s search for a secret society dedicated to the preservation of useless tales. The contents of The Tainted Earth are as follows: The Tainted Earth The Sick Mannes Salve The Ballad of El Pichón Fugue for Black Thursday Mouse and the Falconer The Rune Stone at Odenslunda The Good Samaritan of Prague Three Drops of Death A Spell of Subtle Hunting Canto I – Historian of the Strange Canto II – Bibliotheca Abscondita Canto III – Kniébolo’s Lament Notes to the Stories Six of the eight stories, as well as the novella are previously unpublished and appear in The Tainted Earth for the first time. These stories are rooted in ancient European, Latin American and Far Eastern folk motifs; a characteristic which sets the book apart from the author's first two collections (published by Ex Occidente). All of the stories embody the author's lifelong fascination with death, impermanence, betrayal, regret, spiritual homelessness, and the imponderable nature of time. The book is a lithographically printed, 224 page sewn hardback with colour endpapers. It is limited to 300 copies.