diff --git a/c/eval.c b/c/eval.c
index f26c333..6b861fc 100644
--- a/c/eval.c
+++ b/c/eval.c
@@ -1636,13 +1636,36 @@ void load_file(const char *path, Env *env) {
     FILE *f = fopen(path, "r");
     if (!f) lisp_error("file not found: %s", path);
 
-    fseek(f, 0, SEEK_END);
-    long sz = ftell(f);
-    fseek(f, 0, SEEK_SET);
-
-    char *src = (char *)ul_malloc(sz + 1);
-    size_t nread = fread(src, 1, sz, f);
-    src[nread] = '\0';
+    /* Seekable files (regular): size up-front, single read.
+     * Non-seekable files (pipes, FIFOs, sockets — e.g. bash process
+     * substitution <(...) yields /proc/self/fd/N pointing at a pipe):
+     * ftell returns -1, which silently casts to SIZE_MAX inside fread
+     * and overruns the heap. Stream-read into a growable buffer instead. */
+    char *src = NULL;
+    long sz = -1;
+    if (fseek(f, 0, SEEK_END) == 0) {
+        sz = ftell(f);
+        if (fseek(f, 0, SEEK_SET) != 0) sz = -1;
+    }
+    if (sz >= 0) {
+        src = (char *)ul_malloc((size_t)sz + 1);
+        size_t nread = fread(src, 1, (size_t)sz, f);
+        src[nread] = '\0';
+    } else {
+        size_t cap = 4096;
+        size_t len = 0;
+        src = (char *)ul_malloc(cap);
+        for (;;) {
+            if (len + 1 >= cap) {
+                cap *= 2;
+                src = (char *)ul_realloc(src, cap);
+            }
+            size_t got = fread(src + len, 1, cap - 1 - len, f);
+            len += got;
+            if (got == 0) break;
+        }
+        src[len] = '\0';
+    }
     fclose(f);
 
     int count;