Arkady - Softcover

Langley, Patrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1910695513 ISBN 13: 9781910695517

Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2018

Synopsis

Brothers Jackson and Frank live on the margins of a big urban sprawl. From abandoned tower blocks to gleaming skyscrapers, their city is brutal, beautiful and divided. As anti-government protests erupt across the teeming metropolis, the brothers sail in search of the Red Citadel and its promise of a radical new way of life. A striking portrait of the precarity of modern urban living, and of the fierce bonds that grow between brothers, Patrick Langley's debut Arkady is a brilliant coming-of-age novel, as brimming with vitality as the city itself.

About this title

About the Author

Patrick Langley’s first novel, Arkady, was longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Deborah Rogers Writers Prize. The Variations is his second novel.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

“The man lies flat on the sand, legs outstretched, arms at rest. His eyes are closed but his mouth is open, slack lips parted on the dark red muscle of his tongue. In the sockets of his eyes, the flesh is patterned with shades of lavender, ash, and sulphur, the soft meat swollen and deeply bruised. Weeds, sprouting from a slope of shingle, form a crooked halo around his head. Their bony trunks pierce a tangle of rust-coloured seaweed, which is shrivelled-up, jewelled with salt. Jackson inspects the plants. The brittle canes are hung with rattling seedpods, spiked with thorny leaves and needles pale as bone. Harsh gusts quicken the churning waves. The dry weeds shiver, hiss.
Jackson turns to his younger brother, who is standing a short way further down the beach. ‘Is he really dead?’ Frank asks. His voice is thin, distant.
‘I don’t know,’ Jackson replies.
‘Is he breathing?’
‘Doesn’t look like he’s breathing.’
‘We need a mirror.’
Dawn is breaking on the estuary, wads of cloud soaked in colourless light. Black hair sprawls across Frank’s forehead, reaching into his eyes. Squinting at the rain, he looks askance at Jackson.
‘A mirror?’
‘You’re meant to hold one up to his mouth,’ says Jackson. ‘See if you get condensation. That’s how you know for sure.’ He clutches himself, a reflex. He is cold to his marrow.
‘Says who?’ Jackson shrugs.
‘Can’t remember.’
The shoreline is wind-scoured, blasted, bleak. Old battlements hunker down the sand, obsolete defences that resemble totems now, crumbled by age and weather. Their innards are riddled with nets of wire and mottled with luminous algae. Frank runs a hand through his wet black hair. Raindrops leap and seethe as they hit the sand.
‘We don’t have a mirror,’ says Frank. He folds his arms, copying Jackson, to preserve what little warmth is left in his shivering body. ‘We don’t need a mirror.’ He recoils a few inches, snarling. ‘Look at him,’ he says. ‘Look.’”

Edition details

• Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1910695513
• ISBN 13: 9781910695517
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240