Animal: Notes from a Labyrinth - Softcover

Fishbone, Alan

9781917453363: Animal: Notes from a Labyrinth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1917453361 ISBN 13: 9781917453363

Publisher: The Mercier Press, 2025

View all copies of this ISBN edition

0 Used

3 New

From � 12.14

A quiet night in a Berlin cocaine den turns into a full confession the moment the narrator stops pretending he has anything left to hide.

Burned out from years chasing love, art, and pleasure across two continents, the voice at the centre of Animal wants nothing more than one honest night. A drink, a line, a companion who won't ask questions. But as the twilight zone of New York and Berlin's seedy bars closes in around him, the confessions start surfacing on their own, and the narrator's restless mind refuses to let them go. This is the kind of Gonzo-fuelled literary fiction that rewards readers who love wreckage simmering beneath a well-dressed surface.

Rambling with wit but never mercy, Fishbone uncovers the troubled soul of a German expressionist painter, a latter-day hunger artist starving out his own demons, and a tight-knit world of sex workers guarding survival instincts they never asked for. What begins as a drunken rant becomes one of the most quietly devastating books fiction has offered this year, as the drinks keep pouring, the nights blur together, and the narrator's own life slowly turns on itself.

In a labyrinth where everyone is hiding from something, the truth may be the most dangerous discovery of all.

Dive into a collection that delivers everything readers love about the sharpest contemporary fiction:

A radically uninhibited narrator who confronts the case against himself with wit and wreckage instead of a badge.
An atmospheric, booze-soaked New York and Berlin setting that ranks among the most immersive urban fiction you will find.
A decade of buried addiction whose secrets refuse to stay drowned beneath the surface.
Clever detours through Catullus and Horace expected of the sharpest literary fiction on the shelf.
A perfectly tangled circle of lovers and strangers, each hiding a longing as knotted as the last.
Dark humour laced with genuine dread, ideal for fans of Hunter S. Thompson and unflinching crime fiction books.

The closer the narrator gets to the truth about himself, the more he realises this labyrinth has been hiding a version of him in plain sight. With old loves cracking apart in the haze and every companionate drink concealing a lie, this stands proudly among the freshest romantic fiction books of the year wretched and enthralling in equal measure.

A bold, radically uninhibited work from author Alan Fishbone, a lifelong chronicler of muck and glory, this is a must-read entry for anyone building a shelf of the boldest books fiction and unflinching contemporary fiction.

Some nights end in silence. This one ends in confession.

Grab your copy of Animal: Notes from a Labyrinth today and meet the narrator everyone will be talking about.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Alan Fishbone was born and raised in New York City. He is a scholar and translator of ancient Greek and Latin and a professional sailboat captain. When not in New York, he lives aboard the cutter rigged sailboat Pelekun, usually to be found somewhere in the Western hemisphere.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.