One or two people have asked me privately what's happening with Shrike, and it's possible others out there, who haven't asked me, are wondering. So, I've been scouring the Internet for signs of Shrike's advent, and know that at least two people have read it. This evidence being confusing rather than conclusive, I asked myself why I didn't just write to the publisher to enquire what the situation was. The answer, of course, is that, perhaps like most writers, I don't like to be a pest. Anyway, I did write, and I have information that Shrike will be published in the next few weeks.
The entry for pre-orders on the online catalogue still doesn't have the blurb up, but the blurb does exist on the Internet, here. I do wonder if lack of blurb has contributed to low pre-order figures. Just in case it will go towards rectifying that in any way, I will reproduce the blurb here:
Brett Stokes is already middle-aged and yet feels that his life has not begun. In an attempt to make sense of his existence he travels to the provincial town of Ôtani in Japan, hoping that, through his writing, he will obtain the insight that he lacks. But in Japan it is late autumn and, closeted within the garden of the lately widowed Mrs Kunisada, Stokes finds the motley collection of arboreal reds and yellows working upon his imagination, until reality itself becomes spectral.
As the strange season unfolds, and Stokes meditates upon the meaning of life, death and literature, the power of the Shrike gradually takes centre-stage.
In this startling novella, Quentin S. Crisp fuses delicacy with darkness and pathos with terror, creating a blend of Japanese and English literature that is as deeply moving as it is unique.
