Preview of my latest book: Franzlations.

My latest book is due out from New Star next month. The above is an almost finished draft of the cover, designed by Craig Conley who also did the images. The book has his brilliant images on every page. He also designed the book. My other collaborator on this was Hugh Thomas, who is one of my absolute favourite poets. I'm thrilled to have been able to collaborate with them on this. I know my good friend, Franz, was too,

Here's something about the book.

Franzlations takes the parables and aphorisms of Kafka as a starting point, and steps a few places to the left in order to reinvent them. Sometimes this means walking off a cliff and into the empty air. (Don't look down!) Sometimes this means keeping the cage and replacing the bird. For of course, Kafka's writing is a rich source of ideas, play, structure, and wit. It looks like the real world, but in the way the bootstrap that one pulls oneself up with looks like a real bootstrap.

It is said that if Kafka had not existed, Kafka would have had to invent him. But since he did exist, Franzlations has invented an imaginary Kafka so that he could help create the Kafka that was already there. Perhaps it was that. Kafka who helped create these imaginary parables.
This, itself, is a parable.