Metamorphica: Fiction
Zachary Mason
(Author)
Description
A brilliant and daring novel that reimagines Ovid's Metamorphoses
In the tradition of his bestselling debut novel The Lost Books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason's Metamorphica transforms Ovid's epic poem of endless transformation. It reimagines the stories of Narcissus, Pygmalion and Galatea, Midas and Atalanta, and strings them together like the stars in constellations--even Ovid becomes a story. It's as though the ancient mythologies had been rewritten by Borges or Calvino; Metamorphica is an archipelago in which to linger for a while; it reflects a little light from the morning of the world.Product Details
Price
$20.00
$18.60
Publisher
Picador USA
Publish Date
July 09, 2019
Pages
304
Dimensions
4.5 X 7.2 X 0.9 inches | 0.65 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781250215000
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliate
About the Author
Zachary Mason is a computer scientist and the author of The Lost Books of the Odyssey and Void Star. He lives in California.
Reviews
"Mason shows that [The Lost Books of the Odyssey] was a warm-up for an even more ambitious reimagining of an epic work. Where Odysseus unifies the earlier work, Ovid's Metamorphoses and, necessarily, Mason's latest are more sprawling, introducing readers to the likes of Icarus, Midas, Orpheus, and Eurydice . . . Both soaring and deep, this dazzling narrative creates a fictional universe of myth that transcends time itself." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Metamorphica is a joy of a book. Mason understands beautifully that traditions are most powerful in their reinvention. Beyond their tremendous lyricism and admirable control, these retellings of Mediterranean myth offer the truest pleasure of all fiction, its immense possibility. Metamorphica brims with imagination and an astonishing empathy that reminds us that even the most ancient of legends can feel urgent to us today, if only we would just listen." --Kanish Tharoor, author of Swimmer Among the Stars "Lush and very smart . . . the stories . . . throb with tragedy, transformation, and wars." --JR Ramakrishnan, Electric Literature on The Lost Books of the Odyssey "[An] impressive collection of flash fictions that accentuate the pain, frustrations, and regrets of well-known and unfamiliar myths." --Publishers Weekly on The Lost Books of the Odyssey "Jubilant in execution. Perverse and irreverent." --Katherine A. Powers, The Boston Globe on The Lost Books of the Odyssey "Mason's prose is finely wrought . . . His imagination soars and his language delights." --Adam Mansbach, The New York Times Book Review"Clever, compelling, and often poignant . . . Mason's puckishly archaic diction, a wiseacre's revision of Richmond Lattimore with swing and jazz, is such a pleasure." --Jesse Berrett, San Francisco Chronicle
