LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Straddling genres, darkness and light, this novella stretches imagination and highlights the passing of time, of relationships, and the strength of women. This feels like a very personal exploration of aging, of the different types of dying humanity can experience, and yet a surprising beam of light captures hope even as it feels hopeless. Maxim’s novels always sit balancing on the edge of darkness. A deep sadness remains at the centre of this story, I found myself stepping forward into the unknown, visiting various themes. Bold, forthright, honest, yet full of creativity, this flirts with a vision just out of sight. The Exopotamia Manuscript is a Liz Pick of the Month, and this dark reverie is a fearlessly original piece of writing.
Liz Robinson
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The Exopotamia Manuscript Synopsis
“The expression ‘you are what you eat’ has been attributed to Bob Dylan, and like any writer I am the sum of my experiences, on the page, the screen and in real life. I was brought up in France and as a result that wonderful, doomed author Boris Vian became a strong influence. His lost characters, sometimes surrealist settings and the way he subverted the tenets of the traditional fantasy genre had a subterranean effect which has resurfaced decades later in my books, particularly so as I began moving away from the crime genre.
Polish 18th century nobleman, politician and fabulist Count Jan Potocki’s “The Manuscript Found in Saragossa” has also lingered in my mind since I read it when in my 20s, a subterranean influence; a gem of a book that combines the picaresque, the occult, eroticism and so much more, which fascinatingly demonstrates that the fantastic can flower without quests, wizards and dragons. And then there is the music of Serge Gainsbourg! But when I began writing this novella, I had no idea I would draw on these elements: I had a blank canvas, but knew that I wanted to write about mourning, the beauty of women and the sadness of watching the years go by.
And then I walked into a diner in St John’s in Newfoundland and the waitress who served my clam chowder unwittingly pulled the trigger on this perverse love story, full of horror and lost souls. Not that the real-life Lily will ever be aware of the fact!”
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781917173001 |
| Publication date: |
29th August 2024 |
| Author: |
Maxim Jakubowski |
| Publisher: |
Black Shuck Books |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Primary Genre |
Shorter Reads
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Author
About Maxim Jakubowski
Maxim Jakubowski is a London-based novelist and editor. He was born in the UK and educated in France. Following a career in book publishing, he opened the world-famous Murder One bookshop in London. He now writes full-time. He has two books of erotic photography, as well as many acclaimed crime collections. His novels include It's You That I Want To Kiss, Because She Though She Loved Me and On Tenderness Express, all three recently collected and reprinted in the USA as Skin In Darkness. Other books include Life In The Word of Women, The State of Montana, Kiss Me Sadly and Confessions Of A Romantic Pornographer. In 2006 he published American Casanova, a major erotic novel which he edited and on which fifteen of the top erotic writers in the world have collaborated, and his collected erotic short stories as Fools For Lust. He compiles two annual acclaimed series for the Mammoth list: Best New Erotica and Best British Crime. He is a winner of the Anthony and the Karel Awards, a frequent TV and radio broadcaster, a past crime columnist for the Guardian newspaper and Literary Director of London's Crime Scene Festival.
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