Kirjahaku

A meteor the size of LA is about to hit LA and in London a couple of friends spend their last seven days watching the news, reinventing chess and rewriting the rules of some of the other games in their universe: generally getting things into perspective, at once paralysed and inspired by the 'overallness of it all'. Getting ready, as best they can, to die together, the enormity of what's about to happen completely overwhelms them, but it also brings out in them a whole burst of creative energy, and so as the story to top all stories unfolds, they inadvertently become its co-authors, while in a dimension far beyond their imagination, their soul-mates-in-spirit are having something of an unexpected ball...

"Orlando - figment of the imagination, ideal and idol and fallible in every way conceivable but flawless in the eye of the beholder - is given to the world perfectly formed by the gods, themselves constructs of the human endeavour to conquer the unknowable and unknown."Orlando, beautiful though lazy shepherd boy on Crete, is tasked by the gods to settle a dispute: who among them is patron of the most perfect city.His journey takes him to Alexandria where he studies under Euclid, to Florence, where he sits for a portrait by Leonardo da Vinci, to London where he falls in love with a Russian princess; then, having inexplicably but assuredly turned woman, to Paris where she joins the women's march on Versailles, then to Vienna where she chooses to dress as a man while making the acquaintance of, among others, a curious Dr Freud and a very young Ludwig Wittgenstein, and finally, now once again as a man though experimenting with drag, to New York where he experiences the creative as well as destructive forces around Warhol's Factory; before, ultimately, timeless, ageless, and without gender or agenda Orlando becomes simply Orlando.A playful literary odyssey through 2500 years of Western civilisation.

"A delight to read. So delicate, casually cruel, wickedly funny and wildly alluring." - Stephen FryDamion is a boy so beautiful that everybody falls in love with him. This, his greatest advantage in life, gradually turns into his heaviest burden and so as he reaches adulthood, Damion, in an act half wanton, half heroic, destroys what for most people-but not for him-has come to define his essence. A classic tale of a young man seeking his destiny.

"A delight to read. So delicate, casually cruel, wickedly funny and wildly alluring."- Stephen FryDamion is a boy so beautiful that everybody falls in love with him. This, his greatest advantage in life, gradually turns into his heaviest burden and so as he reaches adulthood, Damion, in an act half wanton, half heroic, destroys what for most people-but not for him-has come to define his essence. - A classic tale of a young man seeking his destiny."Sebastian Michael's novel, 'Angel', is a great achievement; beautifully written and thoroughly engaging. At face value it is the story of a young man so beautiful that "anyone who met him fell instantly in love with him". His emergence from boyhood is described with an astonishing sympathy for the experience of adolescence. The author has a great gift for subtle and commanding characterisation, one result of which is our developing appreciation of the burden of beauty on the 'hero' of the tale and all who come into contact with him. Events are beautifully described with a perspicacity for place and sensation. On another level, 'Angel' can be read as an allegory of a society concerned largely with the superficial. Here value is determined by Beauty and the consequence of a great surfeit in power created by fundamental inequalities between people is explored in the trajectories of human lives. 'Angel' raises questions of responsibility and agency, as those privileged by society try to claim some responsibility for what appears to be pre-determined lives. We are asked to consider to what extent we can be responsible for the impact of our existence. 'Angel' is compelling and curious, an intelligent inquiry and a sensual pleasure. Its characters and their experiences feel immediately real and they also resonate over time remaining with the reader: so true is the author's ability with narrative and character. With 'Angel', Sebastian Michael has produced a novel that is a pleasure to read, that has depth and detail, and that raises some of the important questions for the contemporary moment. The ultimate meaning of 'Angel' will be a subject of debate between readers, as is inevitable with a novel that works so well on many levels." Alana Jelinek - Author of Ohm's Law