The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror

246 pp. 2010 Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction. The Conspiracy against the Human Race is renowned horror writer Thomas Ligotti's first work of nonfiction. Through impressively wide-ranging discussions of and reflections on literary and philosophical works of a pessimistic bent, he shows that the greatest horrors are not the products of our imagination. The worst and most plentiful horrors are instead to be found in reality. Mr. Ligotti's calm, but often bloodcurdling turns of phrase, evoke the dreadfulness of the human condition. Those who cannot bear the truth will pretend this is another work of fiction, but in doing so they perpetuate the conspiracy of the book's title. Includes: Foreword by Ray Brassier; Introduction: Of Pessimism and Paradox; The Nightmare of Being; Who Goes There?; Freaks of Salvation; Sick to Death; The Cult of Grinning Martyrs; Autopsy on a Puppet: An Anatomy of the Supernatural; Notes.