J. J. Steinfeld’s sixteenth book Madhouses in Heaven, Castles in Hell is an eclectic mix of 30 stories embracing and exploring the themes and the psychological terrain — from the absurd to the existential, the surreal to the spiritual — which the author has been dealing with in all of his writing over the years. He grapples with the desire for meaning and sense in the human condition while confronting the chaotic and painful and sometimes strange aspects of history. Whether dealing with the struggles of children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, of individuals searching for purpose and sense through creativity and love, or dealing with the turmoil of their ordinary and extraordinary lives, these stories reflect on love and lovelessness and madness, the worldly and the otherworldly, through the realistic and the fantastical.

Poet, fiction writer, and playwright J. J. Steinfeld lives on Prince Edward Island, where he is patiently waiting for Godot’s arrival and a phone call from Kafka. While waiting, he has published twenty-two books: two novels, Our Hero in the Cradle of Confederation (1987) and Word Burials (2009), thirteen short story collections—The Apostate's Tattoo (1983), Forms of Captivity and Escape (1988), Unmapped Dreams (1989), The Miraculous Hand and Other Stories (1991), Dancing at the Club Holocaust (1993), Disturbing Identities (1997), Should the Word Hell be Capitalized? (1999), Anton Chekhov was Never in Charlottetown (2000), Would You Hide Me? (2003), A Glass Shard and Memory (2010), Madhouses in Heaven, Castles in Hell (2015), An Unauthorized Biography of Being (2016), and Gregor Samsa Was Never in The Beatles (2019)—and seven poetry collections, An Affection for Precipices (2006), Misshapenness (2009), Identity Dreams and Memory Sounds (2014), Absurdity, Woe Is Me, Glory Be (2017), A Visit to the Kafka Café (2018), Morning Bafflement and Timeless Puzzlement (2020), and Somewhat Absurd, Somehow Existential (2021).

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