Shirley Jackson was a gifted horror storyteller

She described the gentle horrors that lurked behind the bourgeois scenes and was a specialist in horrifying scenarios. Now the author, who died in 1965, can be rediscovered.

Shirley Jackson in 1940.

A woman is about to have her third child. But before she can go to the hospital, she prepares breakfast for her family and does the dishes. It looks like nothing will work out in this family without the lady of the house. A few final pedagogical instructions to the husband, who may be completely overwhelmed with the two children, follow. Only then, at the very last moment, is the taxi called to take the heavily pregnant woman to the hospital.