Look Out For … Consumed by David Cronenberg
“Promises murder, philosophy, strange diseases and an incredible variety of sex.”
The debut novel by the iconic film director.
Naomi finds herself drawn to the headlines surrounding Célestine and Aristide Arosteguy. Célestine has been found dead and mutilated in her Paris apartment. Aristide, suspected of the killing, has disappeared. Naomi sets off in pursuit, but the secrets she discovers are as seductive as they are disturbing.
Nathan, meanwhile, contracts a rare STD called Roiphe’s. Nathan then travels to Toronto, determined to meet the man who identified the syndrome. Dr. Barry Roiphe, Nathan learns, now studies his own adult daughter, whose bizarre behaviour masks a devastating secret.
These parallel narratives become entwined in a gripping, dreamlike plot that involves geopolitics, 3-D printing, North Korea, the Cannes Film Festival, cancer, and, in an incredible number of varieties, sex. Consumed is an exhilarating, provocative debut novel from one of the world’s leading film directors.
Why We’re Excited About This Book: A novel by David Cronenberg! There’s probably not much more that needs to be said for most of you to rush out and by this. Especially as the blurb reads more something from one of his earlier films like Videodrome or Crash than Cronenberg’s relatively more conventional work of late (Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method). Consumed promises such Cronenbegian themes as of our relationship with technology and the media, murder, philosophy, strange diseases and what the publisher describes as “an incredible number of varieties” of sex. There’s more than a hint of J.G. Ballard in the description as well. Playing on our contemporary fears and obsessions, Consumed might well prove to be one of the best horror novels of the year.
This Book Will Appeal To: people who have ‘funny’ dreams about their cars or other gadgets.
Consumed is out on the 30 Sep 2014 from Fourth Estate.
Look Out For … Gifts For The One Who Comes After by Helen Marshall
“Her prose has the concise strengths of poetry.”
Ghost thumbs. Microscopic dogs. One very sad can of tomato soup… Helen Marshall’s second collection offers a series of twisted surrealities that explore the legacies we pass on to our children. A son seeks to reconnect with his father through a telescope that sees into the past. A young girl discovers what lies on the other side of her mother’s bellybutton. Death’s wife prepares for a very special funeral. In Gifts for the One Who Comes After, Marshall delivers eighteen tales of love and loss that cement her as a powerful voice in dark fantasy and the New Weird. Dazzling, disturbing, and deeply moving.
Why We’re Excited About This Book: Canadian author Helen Marshall’s stories are dark and uncanny, elegant and thoughtfully written mediations on life and art and the emotions of tinned soup… Marshall is also published as a poet, and her prose has the concise strengths of poetry; even the title of this collection is evocative and memorable. Her first collection Hair Side, Flesh Side (Chizine 2012) won praise and awards from all corners, and this second collection of stories will no doubt garner her more awards, accolades and earthly powers.
This Book Will Appeal To: devotees of eloquent and literate weird fiction.
Gifts For The One Who Comes After is out on 16 September 2014 from Chizine.
JAMES EVERINGTON
