Flawed Angel

Description

A jewel of a fable, sparkling with wit and magic, unsettling, inspired by the Arabian Nights but with the singularity and heartrending pathos of fairy tales by Oscar Wilde. Once upon a time in a Middle Eastern land, a fat, sweet-natured little boy grows up as the son of an important ruler. His older brother was apparently still-born and so he is the heir to his father's kingdom. But far away from the royal palace a lonely prospector happens across a wild creature, half boy, half animal, roaming the forests. Eventually this strange child's adventures lead him to the capital and into the path of a platoon of deserters from Napoleon's army - the flashy, ultimately dangerous, face of Enlightenment thought in this isolated kingdom - with drastic consequences. With original poems embedded like gems in the text, this is a fable for all ages, full of shivers and delights, sadness and wonder.

John Fuller is an acclaimed poet and novelist. He has written eighteen collections of poetry, most recently Pebble & I and Song & Dance, both chosen as Poetry Book Society Recommendations. His 2004 collection, Ghosts, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award for Poetry; The Space of Joy, published in 2006, was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award. He is an Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.

Flawed Angel is easy to read, but persists in the mind when it has been read, and asks to be thought about -- A S Byatt * Guardian * A clever pastiche of an Arabian fable in which the 18th-century ruler of a Middle Eastern land reluctantly faces up to the unsuitability of his son, a fat, dreamy boy, to act as his heir...Playful yet intelligent, it's an impressive exercise in literary impersonation * Financial Times * The fabulous plot carries us along at a goodish speed and...[t]he manner of writing is sculpted, arch, luscious, mellifluous, anachronistic, and a touch wayward -- Michael Glover * Independent * A beautifully textured homily on the indomitable nature of truth. As such, Fuller finally hits that elusive mark: a novel as intellectually provocative as it is emotionally beguiling -- Lucy Powell * Observer * Thought-provoking, sumptuously written...a curiously beautiful and life-affirming story * Sunday Telegraph *