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The Book with Twelve Tales

John Gallas

The Book of Twelve Tales by John Gallas
10% off eBook (EPUB)
Categories: 21st Century
Imprint: Carcanet Poetry
Publisher: Carcanet Press
Available as:
eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE!
(Pub. May 2012)
9781847777935
£9.95 £8.96
Paperback (112 pages)
(Pub. Jan 2008)
9781857548754
Out of Stock
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  • Description
  • Excerpt
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  • Contents
  • Reviews
  • How does a drive of grovelling ermine grab you?
    And a front door in the shape of two nubile walrusettes
    holding the midnight sun aloft and laughing haha?
    And a hall heavier than an ice-floe featuring
    wallpaper made out of polar bears, crossed fulmar and
    a chandelier of a hundred and sixty decapitated caribou?

    from
    'Rich'
    The Book with Twelve Tales is a gallimaufry of stories: comic, frightening, exotic and magical. Here, in John Gallas's richly imagined narrative worlds, are the American gothic of Morten Mortenssen, the pig who eats his owners; the sexual folktale of a comedy of Mongolian marriage; a fable of the power of the imagination as a poet is interrogated by a president. Then there is the terrifying Arctic potentate Zigismund Walrus in his nightmare palace of ice, and the true adventure of the author and Turkish rabies. Gallas's exuberant language draws the reader into twists of plot and dialogue, through tales of evil and violence, love and generosity that reaffirm the power of humour and the value of shared wisdoms.


    Cover image Albrecht Durer, Head of a Walrus, 1521 (copyright the British Museum). Cover design by www.StephenRaw.com.
    Contents

    Morten Mortenssen the Fat Pig

    The Mongolian Economy

    Rich

    The Ballad of Lucky Razek

    The Suspicious Llama

    The Tale of Tales

    The Monkey’s Dilemma

    President Kala and Imi the Poet

    Ao the Kiwi

    The Tale of Lawrence of Arabia post mortem

    The Ferret of Shalott

    Rabies!




    John Gallas is a poet from Aotearoa/NZ, born in Wellington in 1950 and presently living near Markfield, Leicestershire, in the UK. HE has published 31 books of poetry, mainly with Carcanet Press. Others include SLG Press Oxford, Dempsey & Windle, Indigo Dreams, Cerasus Publishing, Cold Hub NZ, Five Leaves Editions (Nottingham), ... read more
    Praise for John Gallas 'Gallas's restless imagination and exuberant vocabulary bounce us through a variety of locations, moods, landscapes and seasons, from the bush-clad South Island of New Zealand to some distinctly unpredictable spots in the English Midlands.'

    Fleur Adcock
    'So many places! John Gallas vagabonds his way through the wide, wide world, and is just about the most audacious poet I know. These are the poems Wordsworth would have written if he'd grown up in New Zealand, been a bit more mischievous, and got around England on a bicycle.'

    Bill Manhire
    'John Gallas is not merely a lyric master, but a master of meaning... The Extasie is a collection that I feel I will be coming back to frequently, not just to recapture the enjoyment I had when first reading it, but also to fully bathe in the complex understanding of love in all its forms, rendered so skilfully in poems that reward a second reading with subtle epiphanies.'

    Ed Bedford, Coffee Time Reviews

    'This is a book for contemplative reading to enjoy all its richness and subtleties. Quietly thought provoking and intelligent, these are poems that celebrate the messiness of life.'

    - Mary Mulholland, The Alchemy Spoon
     'An enticing and timely collection of translations.'
    - The Guardian


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