The Age of Calamities
Stories
Henry Holt and Co. · Print & ebook · January 13, 2026
Written by an inimitable new voice, The Age of Calamities is a genre-defying, mind-bending collection of absurdist, funny, and speculative short stories.
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- Who it’s for
- Stories with a serious streak and a sly eye for the mechanics of time.
- Genres
- Short Stories (Single Author), Absurdist Fiction, Magical Realism
- Published
- Henry Holt and Co., January 13, 2026
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Written by an inimitable new voice, The Age of Calamities is a genre-defying, mind-bending collection of absurdist, funny, and speculative short stories. In this bold debut collection, Senaa Ahmad pushes the boundaries of history and its figures, sending the reader on a thrilling ride. In “Let’s Play Dead,” Henry VIII wants Anne Boleyn gone, but there’s a tiny problem—she keeps coming back to life no matter what he does.
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“Choose Your Own Apocalypse” hurls readers back to 1945, where they assume the role of a technician for the Manhattan Project, confronted with labyrinthine paths and harrowing outcomes. And “Inside the House of the Historian” invites us to a dinner party turned murder mystery full of figures like Nefertiti, Queen Victoria, John Adams, and Marilyn Monroe. These stories and others entice readers to confront the past, the present, and themselves all at once. Zany and haunting, inviting and brilliant, each poignant tale delves into the surreal and tragicomic nature of the present through the lens of yesterday. The Age of Calamities is an evocation of life and death on history’s unsteady margins, of how to reckon with the blunt-force trauma of ill-fated times. Fiercely clever and wildly inventive, this debut establishes Senaa Ahmad as a literary force.
Time, Refracted
Stories with a serious streak and a sly eye for the mechanics of time.
Come here for
- layered short-fiction moves
- cultural-literacy conversation starter
Expect
- short-form resets
- genre-crossing turns
Where it sits
| Short Stories (Single Author) | 70% |
|---|---|
| Absurdist Fiction | 49% |
| Magical Realism | 36% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Funny Fiction
- Short Stories (Single Author)
- Alternate History
- Authors
- Senaa Ahmad
- Publisher
- Henry Holt and Co.
- Published
- January 13, 2026
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Funny Fiction