Unlike other Books of the Dead, The Mishkan Book of the Dead does not merely concern itself with the "hereafter" or the "in-between" - but delves into the "there-before" (as it were) and the "off-to-the-left-and-sort-of-sticking-out-from-behind-the-couch-a-bit" (so to speak)... a collection of short stories unified by the common theme of death, as shown from various angles and within a wide range of contexts - and depicted by a cast of eclectic characters in often strangely metaphysical scenarios... A man possessed by his demonically possessed underpants... a budding love affair with the (literal) goddess next door... a village of mouthless, humming faerie-folk suffering under the bane of an angry volcano god... a would-be hero attempting to save the universe, assisted by the Singing Monkey of Death... and much, much more. Including all the wonderfully Zakharinish elements we've come to expect from Mishka... from the philosophical to the absurd, from the sexy to the morose, aspiring unto consummate wisdom or delving into absurd depths - The Mishkan Book of the Dead covers the spectrum of death (and life) from his indelibly abstruse esotericism... (and it's kinda funny, too, in spots... which is neat...)