Myth of Pterygium

Myth of Pterygium
Diego Gerard Morrison
RRP:
NZ$ 31.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 26.39
Paperback
Not defined - 136pg
22 Mar 2022 US
International import eta 10-30 days
9781637680292
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
The story of a failed poet struggling with vision loss, personal crises, and what it means to be an arms dealer in a quasi-dystopian Mexico City. This debut novel is set in a vaguely dystopian, yet also realistic, Mexico City-endless traffic jams, relentless clouds of pollution, economic hardships, and the ever-present threat of drug cartels. The unnamed narrator of the novel, at times referred to as Arthur-in part because of the growing similarity of his life with Arthur Rimbaud' s-struggles with the dissonance of leading an artistic life while providing for his family. A failed, penniless poet with a child on the way, he is forced to take a job in his family' s weapons dealing enterprise, which he soon discovers is connected to the corrupt Mexican armed forces and drug cartels, who are responsible for the increasing death toll in the country. All the while, the narrator struggles with a growing condition in his right eye, a pterygium, that is slowly taking over his vision, blurring the events of his life, including his wife' s complicated pregnancy, extortions by the drug cartels, and his own relationship to his writing. As the narrator gradually finds his life spiraling out of control, the novel moves quickly to a startling conclusion. Myth of Pterygium is the winner of the 2021 Autumn House Rising Writer Prize in Fiction, selected by Maryse Meijer.
"Morrison' s enigmatic and sweet-humored debut is a thing all of its own. It' s a poignant account of how family, self, and love come together, drift apart, and somehow-gently, miraculously-reform. It' s a satire on the logic of artistic production against a background of elaborate brunches, crime of baroque violence, and no-longer-just-impending ecological collapse. It' s a purgatorial evocation of a city that' s forever pulling itself apart and trying to begin again, all relayed in a form and style whose reckoning with the physical will leave you looking up from the page with the world around you freshened and suddenly, newly relentless. Rich, strange, and brilliant, you won' t read anything else like Myth of Pterygium. " -- Tim MacGabhann, author of How to Be Nowhere "Like all the best myths, Morrison' s surrealist mirror throws our own world into such sharp focus it practically draws blood. Simultaneously hallucinatory and utterly clear-eyed, Myth of Pterygium whirls the reader through a near-future-on-fire via the inimitable perspective of a broke poet and father-to-be as he tries to build a future for himself and his family in a city falling apart at the seams. . . . Mixing philosophy, slapstick adventure, and meditations on the writing life with encounters with tarot-card-reading matriarchs of firearm empires, Myth employs the high and the low and everything in between in a narrative that is remarkable for its seamless, and seemingly effortless, blend of genres and tones. But even greater than its formal inventiveness is the novel' s generosity of spirit; in the midst of Myth' s grief and uncertainty is the sense that we must live and to love not in spite of, but because of, existential threats on the personal and global scale. A gently terrifying, funny, and almost unbearably moving feat from an extraordinary imagination. " -- Maryse Meijer, author of The Seventh Mansion
Diego Gerard Morrison is a writer, editor, and translator. He is the cofounder and fiction editor of diSONARE, an editorial project based in Mexico City. His fiction, nonfiction, and other writings appear or are forthcoming in the Brooklyn Rail, River Rail, Terremoto, Saint Ann' s Review, Roanoke Review, The Acentos Review, Boiler House Press, Precog Magazine, and SHIFTER, among others. He lives and works in Mexico City.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9781637680292
Published: 22 Mar 2022
Published In: United States
Imprint: Autumn House Press
Publisher: Autumn House Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 136

In stock - for items in stock we aim to dispatch the next business day. For delivery in NZ allow 2-5 business days, with rural taking a wee bit longer.

Locally sourced in NZ - stock comes from a NZ supplier with an approximate delivery of 7-15 business days.

International Imports - stock is imported into NZ, depending on air or sea shipping option from the international supplier stock can take 10-30 working days to arrive into NZ. 

Pre-order Titles - delivery will vary depending on where the title is published, if local stock is available in NZ then 5-7 business days, for international imports it can be 10-30 business days. In all cases we will access the quickest supply option.

Delivery Packaging - we ship all items in cardboard sleeves or by box with either packing paper or corn starch chips. (We avoid using plastics bubble bags)

Tracking - Orders are delivered by track and trace courier and are fully insured, tracking information will be sent by email once dispatched.

View our full Order & Delivery information