Lear

<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>