From Fitzcarraldo Editions comes another soon-to-be classic to add to their ever-growing list, this time in the spectral form of It Lasts Forever And Then It’s Over – a strange, haunting novel by Anne de Marcken, whose acerbic voice breathes new life into the fictional possibilities of the undead.
The first few lines – “I lost my left arm today. It came off clean at the shoulder. Janice 2 picked it up and brought it back to the hotel” – set the tone and should be enough to let any reader know this is not your typical zombie novel. As the protagonist moves with fragmentary prose and an unsated hunger through a wasteland somewhere between this world and the next, the book becomes a profound and moving meditation on memory, grief, and how much we can ever really know about the ones we love (“The space between me and you is you. This is a mystery”).
If all this sounds heavy, that’s because it sometimes is, but it’s also leavened by some of the funniest writing you’ll find this year, along with a haiku-spouting crow. A short, striking book that will last a long time in the memory of those who read it.
It Lasts Forever And Then It’s Over, Anne de Marcken (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Price: £10.99/£4.99 Ebook. Info: here
words JOSHUA REES