Ode to Jouissance

The Albion Beatnik Bookstore is my favourite bookshop n the world. And now it is launching a press. Proper City Lights style. And I have the privilege of having one of the first two collections to be published. There will be a launch event on January 24th at the store – full details here. I will be launching alongside the fabulous Olivia Stewart-Liberty’s Black Milk.

Ode to Jouissance is a collection that weaves its way through 20th century Europe in search of identity and happiness.

An ambitious scientist plots alone in her flat in 1930s Berlin. Her experiments, stolen from colleagues she has sent to their deaths in the madhouse and concentration camps, are sure to impress the new Minister of Propaganda. But a lifetime spent learning to control those around her is about to come back to haunt her as for the first time she falls under the spell of a more skilled manipulator than her.
A Spanish civil servant drives through the heart of the country to his mother’s home town where he must build a car factory to stop the town sinking into the desert. His companion on the journey is the Chinese businesswoman sent to finalise the deal. The woman who had been his first lover, decades earlier.
An elderly lady sits among friends in a care home. Together they remember the loves of their distant past. But Catherine has no interest in the past. She is certain a young Polish man is on his way to marry her.

Previously published as an ebook, I am truly honoured to have this exquisite paperback, available from the Albion Beatnik for just £4. Both books have cover illustrations by Daniel Balanescu , and are designed by Inspiragraphics .