The Conversions - Softcover

Mathews, Harry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0856357669 ISBN 13: 9780856357664

Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd, 1995

Synopsis

Grent Wayl, a wealthy eccentric, invites the narrator to compete against Wayl's niece and nephew, the winner to receive a ceremonial adze

About this title

Review

"The tragi-comedy of human ingenuity, which insists upon interpreting the facts of experience even when they are senseless, baffling, or banal.... a remarkable extension and exploration of the odd fictional devices invented by Raymond Roussel." --?Edmund White, "New York Times"

"Exquisitely stitched narratives, and [a] sense of wonderverging on aweat the world's regal strangeness... inspires [Mathews's] novels.... Extraordinary imagination.... Told with the strictest economy, without extraneous justification or explanation." --?"Times Literary Supplement"

From the Back Cover

At a dinner party hosted by a wealthy New Yorker, a guest receives a gold adze, the coveted prize in a worm race. When the man dies the next day, he bequeaths, according to a stipulation in his will, the bulk of his fortune to the adze's possessor, provided he answer three mysterious questions relating to the artifact's history. In his search the owner encounters a menagerie of eccentric personalities: an ancient revolutionary in a Parisian prison, a ludicrous pair of gibberish-speaking brothers, and customs officials who spend their time reading contraband materials. He soon finds himself immersed in the centuries-long history of a persecuted religious sect and in an odyssey that begins in a forgotten fog-covered town in Scotland and ends on the ocean floor off the coast of an uncharted French island.

Edition details

• Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0856357669
• ISBN 13: 9780856357664
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 180