Come for an evening of wine, music and reading at the Drawn and Quarterly to launch The Fish, the new illustrated novel by Dean Garlick (illustrations by Erik Volet), published by Anteism. Musical guests include Erin Lang and the Foundlings, along with myself, singing two songs from the book. I look forward to seeing all who can attend!
About the book: Patrick Kaye thinks he?s taking a harmless Caribbean cruise, a well-earned escape from his day-to-day life as an addictions counsellor. What he gets instead is a near-death experience that lands him in the belly of a mythological beast?the very same creature that swallowed Jonah. Inside, he encounters a confounding world populated by a host of colourful residents: a 19th-century British gentleman, a pre-Christian Icelandic shaman, a survivor of the biblical flood, a Ukrainian prostitute, an Asian American stock market analyst, a Maori warrior and a sadistic little girl, to list a few. The Fish explores currents of contemporary existence in a realm where the brutality of history is ever-present and the will to exist is the only thing keeping a person from fading into nothingness. Can Patrick accept this new reality? Can he right the wrongs he sees around him? Or will the call of the outside world offer enough hope to send him searching for a way home? The Fish is lavishly illustrated with engaging B&W illustrations by artist Erik Volet.
About the Author: Dean Garlick is an educator and writer living in Montreal. Fantastical permutations of reality abound in his work as a response to his characters' frustrations with the absurdity and struggle of everyday existence, but they have nothing whatsoever to do with his real life. Nothing. He is excited by the possibilities presented by illustrated fiction, especially the potential to explore multiple, non-parallel modes of narrative within a single piece.