US/EN
Endland
Description
Kings, lords, liars, usherettes, goal-hangers, gun-men and prostitutes, Whether or not these stories bear any relation to life as it is lived in Endland (sic) is not my problem and good riddance to all those what prefer to read about truly good, lucky and nice people - you won't like this crap at all.
A series of cautionary tales for our digital age, Endland is comical and brutal, set in strangely familiar locations that at times seem like Thatcher-era Northern towns under military rule or post-Brexit council estates after a Farage party bender. And things are leaking into Endland from all over the place. Nothing is stable. Now is also then and next year, a landscape that is future and medieval at the same time. What's more, the gods have started drinking at lunchtime, which can only lead to trouble. In narratives working a bit like poetry or cartoons, in empty tower blocks, midnight diners and bomb-site cities, Endland is a dysfunctional mirror of England.
The world fashioned by Thatcher, Google, IFOR, ICANN, Brexit, Big Brother, Bin Laden and Trump needs new tools to navigate them. These grotesque stories are close to the bone, and help us get close to the heart of the times we are living in.
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About the Author
Tim Etchells is an artist and writer based in Sheffield and London. His work shifts between performance, visual art and fiction. As well as being Professor of Performance and Writing at Lancaster University, he works in a wide variety of contexts, notably as the leader of the ground-breaking, world-renowned Sheffield performance group Forced Entertainment, whose prizes include the 2016 International Ibsen Award. He has developed a unique voice in writing fiction and exhibited work and presented performances in significant institutions and festivals all over the world, including at Glastonbury Festival, the Tate Modern and as the 2014 Artist of the City of Lisbon.
Reviews
"Etchells is one of the few writers who has made a tough, eloquent, emotional new language of ideas about class, human fragility, lust, embarrassment and a good night out. He is a legend." --Deborah Levy
"[Endland] is horrible, brilliant, deliberately provoking. At times I wished it was over; now I wish it had never stopped." --Ian Sansom, The Guardian
"An incisive commentary on the current social and political omnishambles. This essential book is just what we need right now, and more than we deserve." --David Collard, Literary Review
"Etchells makes sparks fly by allowing the mythic to rub against grubby everyday existence . . . scorching, bitter satire of how society is continually screwed by inequality. A cracklingly original voice." --Holly Williams, The Observer
"It insists on being read, at once, and probably out loud." --Iain Sinclair
Praise for the 1999 collection Endland Stories
"Surreal, compulsive... probably the most original and unsettling read you're likely to have this year." --The Big Issue
"The scenery is taken straight from a low-budget Blade Runner... brilliantly welds together archaic language with computer-speak to create a funny, caustic collection." --The Times
"Reads as if written by one of Anthony Burgess's more gifted Clockwork Orange droogs." --The Guardian
"The best yet from the pulpsters!" --Jeff Noon"Though his theme is the state of the nation, Etchells has little time for the new realism of the last few years, placing himself instead in the tradition of Ballard and Moorcock. Hacking up our comforters - TV cartoons, mythologies, children's toys and board games - he deftly strips away the sentimental wadding we use as insulation from reality. A dance through the ruins of modern Britain... Etchells takes a Sadean delight in casual cruelty, creating a flippant and contorted technomedieval world whose gods are named Tesco and Blowjob, the spectre of real lives and real suffering is uncannily present." --Attitude
