| ‘House of Leaves is a kid. I’m that kid’s dad’ ... Mark Z Danielewski. Photograph: Ulf Andersen |
Horror books
Ten Haunted House Stories
'House of Leaves changed my life': the cult novel at 20
The nightmarish tale of a house that is bigger on the inside than the outside still inspires devotion. Fans, and the author, share what it means to them
Andrew Lloyd
Thu 2 Apr 2020 14.04 BST
T
he origin of Mark Z Danielewski’s debut novel House of Leaves sounds like something from the book itself: a messy bundle of papers that circulated in an underground scene before being officially published by Pantheon Books in March 2000. The novel quickly gained a cult following, and was praised for its experiments with typography, labyrinthine design and strange story centred on one man’s discovery that his new family home is larger on the inside than the outside, by one inch.