Karim Ghahwagi

THIS HERMETIC LEGISLATURE: A HOMAGE TO BRUNO SCHULZ

Edited by D.P. Watt and D.T. Ghetu

Ex Occidente Press

 At the end of a curious parallel track of imagination the Twentieth Century is frozen by the memory of early spring snows, the lascivious gaze of tradesmen, dark July nights and the chatter of exotic birds. Every face in the crowd is as still as a travelling waxwork exhibit. It is an Age of Genius writ in crumbing ledgers and announced in the margins of charlatans’ advertisements. Everywhere the agony and ecstasy of its times may be read. Upon every mouldering wall there is a rich mural of creation and beneath every glittering plastic jewel of technology hides an ancient fermentation. In each shop window, with its teetering mannequins, a universe of magical forms unfolds —a pageant of infinite life begging to be rewritten, to live again!

‘Panta Rei!’

1. Fugue for Black Thursday by George Berguno
2. Great Ruins of Tomorrow by Stephen J. Clark
3. The Fall of a City Planner by Karim Ghahwagi
4. The Messiah of the Mannequins by Rhys Hughes
5. Letters in Black Wood by Joel Lane
6. The Original Light by Mark Valentine
7. With Shadow All the Marble Steps by Oliver Smith
8. Manual of Quiet Destruction by Charles Schneider
9. Silver on Green by John Howard
10. The Subjugation of Eros by D.P. Watt
11. All in a Hot and Copper Sky by Dominy Clements
12. My Ruined Father by Douglas Thompson
13. The Notched Sword by Adam S. Cantwell
14. A Calendar of Cherries by Colin Insole
15. The Vile Game of Gunter and Landau by Michael Cisco
16. A Posthumous Messiah by Reggie Oliver
17. The Restaurant Saint Martin by R.B. Russell
18. My Heretical Existence by Mark Samuels

This Hermetic Legislature: A Homage to Bruno Schulz is an over-sized sewn hardcover book of 300 pages with endpapers, a full-colour frontispiece and a dust-jacket. Deluxe cloth boards with folio.

Ongoing Real Time review

Amerika has received its first review by D.F. Lewis! He writes: ‘If you want to live in a Magritte painting and its hinterland, then you will love this novellarette.‘  You can read the rest of the Real Time review here

There is also some info and news about my past and future collaborations with Efterklang in the Guardian in lieu of the release of the Vincent Moon created film An Island. Here.

Amerika is published today.

My novella The Building Inspector will appear in the Mikhail Bulgakov themed anthology The Master In Café Morphine from Ex Occidente Press and is now available for pre-order. To my delight Dan Ghetu decided to publish Amerika as a stand alone book as part of his gorgeous landscape format Passport Levant imprint, and my new 30,000 word novella will now replace it in the Café Morphine book. Update: My Building Inspector novella is still at Ex Occidente but will not appear in the Mikhail Bulgakov antho.

The audio book version of Brian Evenson’s novel Last Days is out and it uses the original cover I did for the first Underland Press edition. You can hear a sample read by Chris Patton and get a copy here. The American Library Association picked Last Days as its Outstanding Horror novel of the Year, and it was also shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award. And after that you can even read a new Brian Evenson short story over at the Conjunctions website here, (unless you have a deep fear of Mylings.)

AMERIKA (Passport Levant)
by Karim Ghahwagi
Publication Date: February 21st  2011
Details about the book: sewn hardcover with dust-jacket printed on heavy cardboard paper, cloth boards, gold folio, silk ribbon, end papers and full-color frontispiece.

America has disappeared. Resources at the US Embassy in Copenhagen are a little stretched, and the extraordinary circumstances therefore require extraordinary measures, even if it means drawing upon the services of the world’s second greatest living detective – a disillusioned American expatriate called Mr. Denmark who is currently living in Copenhagen. Meanwhile, a travel writer called Mr. Sweden finds himself in a precarious position as the very subject matter of his next travel book seems to have disappeared. Copenhagen is gripped by a deep sense of unease. Bookshops and countries are disappearing, animals wearing Bowler hats are overrunning the city, the central immigration services have been beleaguered by tuxedo wearing penguins- infernal forces might be at work. And then there is that walking, talking Mauser-toting cat who might or might not be in cahoots with the Execrate Himself.

http://www.exoccidente.com/amerika.html