11th of March
We invite you to the presentation Brian Evenson’s new book: “The Last Days.”
After the amputation of his hand, Kline, an undercover agent, lives a solitary existence, spending his time in his apartment, resistant to any kind of contact. One day, however, the phone rings. “It’s fortune knocking,” say two strangers, offering an interesting job opportunity. Kline wants nothing to do with it, but his interlocutors are not really asking. He is reluctantly taken to the headquarters of the Mutilation Brotherhood and enters the alternate world constructed by this cult, fanatically loyal to its principles. Kline must investigate a murder that occurred within the Brotherhood, but every apparent truth is a fragment of a larger, incomprehensible work, much like his truncated arm that ends in a phantom hand, nonexistent yet vividly alive for him. As he tries to navigate a maze of lies, threats, and deceit, Kline discovers that his own survival will depend on an act of pure will and emancipation.
In his admired afterword, Peter Straub considers Brian Evenson an extreme writer. “The Last Days” is an intense and disturbing novel that fearlessly looks into the abyss of the human heart.
Biography:
Brian Evenson (Ames, Iowa, 1966) is a writer, translator, critic, and university professor. His works have earned him numerous awards, including the O. Henry Award for short fiction, three Shirley Jackson Awards, and the International Horror Guild Award. According to George Saunders, “there is no more intense, prolific, and apocalyptic fiction writer in America.”