The Birthday Present and Other Stories

Five tales of denial, devotion, and erotic control - each one different, but each an unmistakable statement from the world of Anna Voss, where male submission and denial is not just expected, but inevitable."Under the Typewriter Keys" twists gothic horror into Locktober tease, a haunted machine binding its victim with contracts he can never escape;The propaganda piece "Why I Vote NVLA" offers a glimpse of Voss's notorious dystopia exposed in On Chestnut Tree Lane - this time as a housewife praises the regime that tracks male misery by the millilitre;"The Keys to His New Home" shows how a simple mishap with a package delivery draws a young man into his neighbour's teasing arms - and unlocks a whole new life of helplessly devoted servitude;The short story "Life at the Post" returns again to the NVLA - and to a man who has found a twisted kind of pleasure, serving his community the only way he can;And in the eponymous novella "The Birthday Present", a young tenant's attraction to his landlady transforms into a future of devotion he could never have anticipated as he finds out just how deeply she has planned his surrender. Spanning gothic horror, political satire, domestic fantasy, and long-term devotion, this collection shows every facet of Voss's style: lush, merciless, literate femdom where female pleasure is paramount, and male denial is destiny.