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  • 7. Document 17 (from the draft novel Stawell Bardo)

    Document 17: Manifestation Series The unicorn is injured, why did it come? My way is finished. ⁓ Attributed to the Zuozhuan, on the death of Confucius, 479 BCE (adapted) This account, drawn from the lower ledgers in the Registry of Misperceived Wonders (Third Vault), concerns the imperfect ascent of a crown, a sign mistaken for Read more

  • 6. Jade Volume (from the draft novel Stawell Bardo)

    Jade Volume There is a mountain in the northern reaches of central China, known by devotees as Time’s Heavenly Sanctuary an Infinity above the Jagged Rocks. To the uninitiated, the summit lies at a distance no greater than a rice husk from the utterly impossible. And yet the region dazzles with natural vistas and unimaginable Read more

  • 5. Missing Persons (from the draft novel Stawell Bardo)

    Missing Persons “Here, have a go at this: “A strange discovery was made yesterday by a miner named Wilson. While cutting props in the bush, about two miles from the Deep Lead, he found that he was at work beside the headless trunk of a human being. The remains were lying about ten feet from Read more

  • Long Death Last Breath

    Tony Reck’s Long Death Last Breath is a work of intense psychological fiction, written in a fevered, stream-of-consciousness style. It traces a man’s descent into obsession, self-harm, and moral disintegration, interwoven with moments of tenderness, delusion, and deferred violence. In support of its themes, the language itself destabilises: syntax stretches, referents blur. Some readers may Read more

  • 4. Death Rites (from the draft novel Stawell Bardo)

    Death Rites I am not the least bit afraid of you hungry ghosts, Mow Fung says silently. Not because he doubts your existence, but because he has lived too long to deny it. Still, he will not let you see his fear. A part of him is always apprehensive, and it would be foolish not Read more