A village nobody calls by its real name. And no one who will speak of it openly.Uncanny voices in the night. And one rule: whoever answers is lost.
Based on true events — two volumes of a true story from the Carpathians. Published October 15, 2026.
Both volumes are out in seven languages on all major platforms – and land on your device straight away, with no waiting. Direct from the author: each book as a Collector’s Edition with extras – or both together as the Premium Bundle.
A True Story from the Carpathians · Book 1
eBook · €4.99
What if your grandmother's warning were a matter of life and death? When the narrator falls in love with Lena, a Romanian woman, he has no idea what he's getting into: a village at the foot of the Carpathians that people in the surrounding area know by only one name — the village of the hanged. At first it's just small things: a cat that flees from his new girlfriend, noises in the apartment that nobody can explain, an invisible lodger the two of them soon call only “the Hairy One.” But the deeper he sinks into his new family's life, the clearer it becomes: a curse more than a hundred years old lies over this place. The Village of the Hanged is a true story about love, family, and an evil that doesn't vanish just because you refuse to believe in it. Book 1 of the Carpathian Chronicles.
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Uncanny Voices in the Night · Book 2
A year after his first book, the narrator returns with Lena to the village at the foot of the Carpathians — for the wedding of her cousin Ana. He hears of Florica, Lena's great-aunt, who answered a voice at seventeen, was found the next morning in the marsh, and then spent forty years by a window waiting for that voice. And on the wedding night he learns firsthand what the family's rule means: whoever answers is lost. Stafii is a true story about love, inheritance, and an ancient voice that knows exactly whose name to call. Book 2 of the Carpathian Chronicles.
More than two ebooks: you get both books as Collector’s Editions with all the extras – plus “The Chronicle”, available only in this bundle.
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Bought separately, the two Collector’s Editions cost €17.80.
Both volumes are available; the retailers are listed with each one. Everything about the books – blurb, sample chapter, background – is on the pages for The Village of the Hanged and Stafii.
At the foot of the Carpathians lies a village that people in the surrounding area don't call by its real name. They call it only: the village of the hanged.
What is told here is not a novel in the usual sense but an account. The narrator lived through a large part of it himself; the rest was told to him by people he trusts — family members, neighbors, witnesses who were there.
The names have been changed. The place is real. Nothing more will be revealed here — some stories lose what makes them what they are the moment you say them out loud.
A place that stopped counting its dead.
A superstition that never disappeared.
And to this day, everyone there is silent about what really happened.
21 researched articles on superstition, old customs and legends – from the Carpathians and beyond.
Available in Deutsch, English, Español, Français, Italiano, Português and Română – including the language these legends come from.
Corben Vale is a pseudonym. The author lives with his family in Germany and travels every year to his wife's home village in Romania. Out of respect for those involved and to protect his own family, he has changed both his own name and the name of the village.
In the Carpathian Chronicles he tells what he encountered in Lena's home village: a true story about love, family, and an evil that doesn't vanish just because you refuse to believe in it.
Sign up and receive your free welcome gift right away – the PDF »Thirteen True Customs of the Carpathians«. You’ll also hear the occasional thing that didn’t make it into the book