<p>A plague driven band of vagabonds and beggars, calling themselves The Shakespeare Company, arrive at the decaying little town of Babylon, where they perform King Lear in a whirl of mayhem and madness. As the night proceeds, they spin out of control, embodied by their roles.</p>
<p>Narrated by the girl Curan, a minor character, this novel is part black comedy, part tragedy, part carnival, and implicitly dystopian. It is a bizarre and disturbing novel of a plague society in social and moray decay. A novel that challenges the reader at every turn.</p>
<p>Erotic, eerie and disturbing, Johnson's novel reinvents the emotional dynamic of Shakespeare's play, as in a distorted mirror. It does not, however, require knowledge of the play to work it's magic as a piece of fiction.</p>
<p>‘Johnson makes an original contribution to the literature of disaster, and certainly to the nation's literature that still struggles beneath the mantle of social realism; he does it by the sheer intensity of his poetic vision, combined with an adroit meta-fictional sense... </p>
<p>In this fallen world, does falling matter? Johnson’s novel is an exuberant, artful meditation on this question…' David Dowling, Landfall.</p>
<p>‘He has achieved a kind of ‘worldmaking’ that confirms his position as one of New Zealand’s most important fiction writers.’ Jody Dalgleish, on the novel <em>Travesty</em>, Landfall.</p>
<p>‘One of the most innovative, original and fearless writers I know.’ Witi Ihimaera, on the novel <em>Stench</em>.</p>
