Brendan Connell

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The fifty-eight extraordinary pieces which make up Spells, though brief, most being just a page or two in length, are grandiose in their ambition. These miniatures, which are bathed in the light of violet suns and wrapped in the beams of the old moons, take up the themes of strange magics and poisons, curious births and lost theologies, and are like extracts of abbreviated drama, the sum-total of which might or might not be a visionary guide.

"Everything I imagine exists. So what exists is greater than what I imagine." Originally published in 1944, and here presented for the first time in English, expertly translated from the French by Sue Boswell, The Key to Reality, by the avant-garde Romanian author Ilarie Voronca, is one of the great surrealist short story collections. Featuring fifteen pieces of prose, including a selection of dream-like "notes", the present book introduces the reader to an office worker who has in his desk drawer, amongst other things, a horse and a tree; a story-teller who has a path running through his bedroom; a street vendor whose customers might be imaginary, as might be his wares. At once enchanting, visionary, and poignant, The Key to Reality is a masterpiece of narrative reflection that operates like a series of magic spells which, with great poetic beauty, transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Against a vast and cruel horizon of caustic poetics, Jae-yong is suffering from ennui; can cannibalism save him? Yves Hermite has a hypodermic needle and an abundance of jaundiced fantasies. What is Mrs. Cheng's shocking secret? Must Azra really be part of this remote nightmare? The Metapheromenoi, which might be termed a major contribution to the post-structuralist novel or a harsh saga of degeneracy and dope, is a book of risqu blasphemies and heartbreaking beauty, a swirling adventure in which heroes and heroines eagerly shed their social masks and crumbling morals. Pulsing with frenetic lyricism, it is a behind the scenes look at neuropsychopharmacology and sexual aberration. A lust-filled, liquor-drenched skyrocket that is unlike anything else in literature.

Boasting itself as the first symbolist kung fu novel ever written, the Unofficial History of Pi Wei, tells the story of the lowly Pi Wei and his path of retribution, in which mystical insight and martial training interweave. Organized into fifty-six chapters, and told with an absolute freedom of expression, this extraordinary tale offers a wealth of hidden knowledge and poetic excesses that is at once elegant and humane.This is a work of obvious interest; but one must turn the pages in order to penetrate the secrets.

Inspiring references and illusions to both Dante and Plato, Brendan Connell's The Rimini-Ferrara Line is a work that asks pointed questions about the truths of vibrant beauty and the strange experiences of investigational prose. In this graceful and sympathetic book, the author brings a musician's ear and the strategic force of a Napoleon to the infinitely amusing world of Italian trains.

Inspiring references and illusions to both Dante and Plato, Brendan Connell's The Rimini-Ferrara Line is a work that asks pointed questions about the truths of vibrant beauty and the strange experiences of investigational prose. In this graceful and sympathetic book, the author brings a musician's ear and the strategic force of a Napoleon to the infinitely amusing world of Italian trains.