Black Scat Books celebrates a few of Doug Skinner‘s masterful translations.

We don’t like to play favorites and with a list of some 200 titles we can’t. But we thought you might like to know which titles have been the most popular. So here is a list of our Top Ten. All are in print, so if you missed one just click on its cover.










There is a veritable army of zombie books out there but nothing remotely like this one. This obscure novel — THE ZOMBIE OF GREAT PERU — is a masterpiece of avant-garde weirdness — written by one Pierre-Corneille Blessebois, “the Casanova of the 17th century,” as an act of literary revenge. It is not simply vengeful, but it’s the first work in world literature to use the word “zombie” and stands as an early example of bizarre black humor. This outrageous relic—unearthed & translated from the French by the incomparable Doug Skinner—is the novel’s first appearance in English and features a preface by the great Guillaume Apollinaire.

There is a veritable army of zombie books out there but nothing remotely like this one. This obscure novel—a masterpiece of avant-garde weirdness—was published in France in 1697. It was written by one Pierre-Corneille Blessebois, “the Casanova of the 17th century,” as an act of literary revenge. It is not simply vengeful, but it’s the first work in world literature to use the word “zombie” and stands as an early example of bizarre black humor. This outrageous relic—unearthed & translated from the French by the incomparable Doug Skinner—is the novel’s first appearance in English and features a preface by the great Guillaume Apollinaire.
_____________________Z-DAY___________________________
The Zombie of Great Peru has risen from the grave—unleashed worldwide by Black Scat in an appropriately fetid trade paperback edition, with sublime cover art and design by Norman Conquest.
Lock your doors and windows. Better yet, order it now before it’s too late!
THE ZOMBIE OF GREAT PERU
Pierre-Corneille Blessebois
with a preface by Guillaume Apollinaire
translated from the French by Doug Skinner
$10.95
Paperback: 146 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0692409749
FIRST PUBLICATION IN ENGLISH!
A zombie rises from the grave of French literature to stalk the earth once more! This bizarre novel – written in 1697 – marks the first mention of the word “zombie” in world literature. It is a wicked tale of lascivious lust and lunatic desires, a strange concoction of prose and verse, set in the sexual and racial hothouse of colonial Guadeloupe. Our narrator has his eye on the beautiful Creole Countess, who goes barefoot and serves her guests tadpoles. When she offers him sex in exchange for magical powers, he tricks her into thinking she’s an invisible zombie; slapstick, humiliation, and confusion follow. Includes a preface by the avant-garde magus: Guillaume Apollinaire.
CLICK HERE to order.
SLEEPYTIME CEMETERY: 40 STORIES by Doug Skinner
Discover a world of ostensibly human specimens behaving in peculiar and unpredictable ways. However, they are often recognizable in a manner we dare not admit. Skinner’s dark humor is deceptively playful and childlike, and that makes our bursts of laughter all the more disturbing.
$14.95 / trade paperback; 208 pp.
THE ZOMBIE OF GREAT PERU by Pierre-Corneille Blessebois. Translated by Doug Skinner
A zombie rises from the grave of French literature to stalk the earth once more! This bizarre novel – written in 1697 – marks the first mention of the word “zombie” in world literature. It is a wicked tale of lascivious lust and lunatic desires. Includes a preface by Guillaume Apollinaire.
$10.95 / trade paperback; 146 pp.

Bill Ectric at RED FEZ has just published an interview with Black Scat author & translator Doug Skinner. Doug talks about his translation of The Zombie of Great Peru — one of our most popular titles and perhaps our weirdest.
CLICK HERE to read the interview.
CLICK HERE to order your zombie

The cartoonist Jason Little spotted a man reading THE ZOMBIE OF GREAT PERU in the subway at the Carroll Street stop, in Brooklyn.
A zombie rises from the grave of French literature to stalk the earth once more! This bizarre novel – written in 1697 – marks the first mention of the word “zombie” in world literature. It is a wicked tale of lascivious lust and lunatic desires, a strange concoction of prose and verse, set in the sexual and racial hothouse of colonial Guadeloupe. Our narrator has his eye on the beautiful Creole Countess, who goes barefoot and serves her guests tadpoles. When she offers him sex in exchange for magical powers, he tricks her into thinking she’s an invisible zombie; slapstick, humiliation, and confusion follow. Includes a preface by the avant-garde magus: Guillaume Apollinaire. FIRST PUBLICATION IN ENGLISH!
If you missed this classic weirdness, it’s available here on Amazon.
There is a veritable army of zombie books out there but nothing remotely like this one. This obscure novel—a masterpiece of avant-garde weirdness—was published in France in 1697. It was written by one Pierre-Corneille Blessebois, “the Casanova of the 17th century,” as an act of literary revenge. It is not simply vengeful, but it’s the first work in world literature to use the word “zombie” and stands as an early example of bizarre black humor. This outrageous relic—unearthed & translated from the French by the incomparable Doug Skinner—is the novel’s first appearance in English and features a preface by the great Guillaume Apollinaire.
_____________________Z-DAY___________________________
The Zombie of Great Peru has risen from the grave—unleashed worldwide today by Black Scat Books in an appropriately fetid trade paperback edition, with sublime cover art and design by Norman Conquest.
Lock your doors and windows. Better yet, order it now before it’s too late!
THE ZOMBIE OF GREAT PERU
Pierre-Corneille Blessebois
with a preface by Guillaume Apollinaire
translated from the French by Doug Skinner
$10.95
Paperback: 146 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0692409749