The Silence Room by Sean O'brien
Chain-smoking alcoholics, warring academics, gothic stalkers, and aspiring writers are just some of the visitors that browse the mysterious library at the heart of this sinister novel. Idlers and idolizers alike can be referenced, in body or in text, among the crepuscular alcoves and dim staircases of this seemingly unassuming building. The secret to a family curse, a dog-eared first edition of Wallace Stevens Harmonium, the gruesome fate of a feminist literary theoristall are available to simply take down from the shelf. Moving between genres, ranging from gothic horror to English pastoral, from critical theory to Cold War noir, this riveting and voracious story-within-stories crescendos the turbulent voices of culture to an effect equally maddening and exalting.
'Often in the last scene, often in the last line, O'Brien. . withdraws his offer of a pint of mild in the local piss-palace and nails your bottom lip to the bar instead.' -Times Literary Supplement; 'Strange, creepy, often brilliant' - Financial Times; 'The prose, winging between stateliness and the coarsest urban patois, is fluent and flawless.' - Independent
Sean O’Brien is a poet, critic, editor, translator, playwright, broadcaster and novelist. His poetry has won multiple awards, including the T S Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize (three times), and the E M Forster Award. His eighth poetry collection, The Beautiful Librarians, won the 2015 Roehampton Poetry Prize. His second novel, Once Again Assembled Here, was published in 2016, as was Hammersmith, a chapbook of poetry and photographs. 2018 sees the publication of his ninth collection of poetry, Europa, and his second collection of short stories from Comma Press, Quartier Perdu. Born in London, Sean O’Brien grew up in Hull and now lives in Newcastle upon Tyne. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781905583171 |
| ISBN 10 | 1905583176 |
| Title | The Silence Room |
| Author | Sean O'brien |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Comma Press |
| Year published | 2008-11-27 |
| Number of pages | 208 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |