ZAGAVA

Zagava

Zagava

Mannikin
Dear friends:

Hope this finds you well.

Zagava proudly announces our next book to be published torwards the end of this month:

“Cannibals of West Papua” by Brendan Connell


picture.php


"Few indeed have penetrated the remote areas of West Papua, a land abounding in ritual and magic. A breviary of anthropophagy and the supernatural, "Cannibals of West Papua" recounts the remarkable adventures of Fr. Massimo Tetrazzini when he gets drafted into the proselytizing exercises of Dom Duarte Ramiro under the auspices of the Pontifical Mission Guild.
Though "Cannibals of West Papua" is a sequel to "The Translation of Father Torturo", it also acts as a stand alone novel. Where the previous work trembled between gothic horror and decadent giallo, the present treatise veers into unexplored territories of crisis, to the furthest edge of cravings, delivering an indispensible and bloody feast for psychologists, beasts, and epicureans alike."


​
“Cannibals of West Papua” comes in two stunning editions: 124 numbered and 26 lettered exemplars.

The numbered edition is bound in beautiful dark-green, handmade Asian lokta paper with a leave-pattern unique to each book.
The 26 lettered exemplars are bound in finest dark-green real leather with debossed gilt titles and an embossed leave pattern different from the numbered edition.

A special feature is an affixed ex libris card, hand-signed by Brendan Connell, bearing the number or letter of the book and, if desired, the affix "personal copy of ...." with your name printed on it. Please do kindly let us know (via email to: books@zagava.de), whether you would like to have your name printed on this card.

"Cannibals of West Papua" was printed on environment-friendly FSC-certified paper in a carbon-neutral printing process and is at our new bindery in Duesseldorf already. Shipping will start towards the end of this month.



Next in Zagava's pipeline are a novella by Quentin S. Crisp and then a true tome:

"Booklore - Volume One", a huge collection of the most unusual stories about the most unusual books. The list of contributors is quite eclectic already! Publication is planned for early autumn - more details will follow soon.

"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us. That is my belief."

Franz Kafka in a letter to his friend Oskar Pollak, 27. January 1905.



picture.php

"Fanny Sleeping with Book" © by Anthony Christian 2015 (under Fanny's pillow: Reggie Oliver's "Virtue in Danger", published by Zagava in 2013!)


Looking very much forward to hearing from you,
kindest regards,
Jonas
www.zagava.de
 
Finally, the first exemplars of Brendan Connell's 200 page novel "Cannibals of West Papua" arrived!

The leather-bound lettered edition features 3 layers of embossing and debossing, which has to be seen and touched to be believed. As of writing this, only very few of the 26 copies remain available for pre-order.
Shipping to commence on Tuesday
www.zagava.de



 
Dear friends:

Two new books from Zagava in a row!


Quentin S. Crisp´s "ERITH" unifies the influences of English supernatural tale and the micro-observations of the Japanese I-novel, and combines them with a trainspotterish psychogeography.
The author brings you a monochrome novella that is either a paean to or a polemic against the drabness of quotidian Britain - his dreariest yet.


"It's 2013. Pop culture is dead. With human activity increasingly 'updated' to digital conformity, community is on the verge of extinction, and a weary, soulless, 21st century Britain is about to endure a phase of austerity imposed from above. As gentrification continues in London, a pitifully obscure writer is squeezed to the very outskirts of the city. At an ebb, he applies for housing benefit, stunned by depression and lost in the shuffling labyrinth of his internal monologue, tripping over the untied shoelaces of his mind."


Hardcover binding, limited edition of 110 Arabic numbered and 10 Roman numbered deluxe exemplars, bound in a textured material, resembling concrete, copper-gilt titles, silk bookmarc ribbon, price: € 74.00 plus recorded € 8.00 shipping, which starts in the second week of November already. (www.zagava.de)

picture.php


The 10 Roman-numbered exemplars are signed by the author, feature gilt edges and come in a tray cut from black, beautifully satinated real stone. (shipping this 2.8 KG/6.2 pounds tome will kill us! :-)!) The tray can be used to display the book standing upright in your shelf as well. Price is € 240.00 plus recorded € 14.00 shipping, which will start as soon as the author is back from his travels to Japan and sign the books in late November. Please do send your reservations to jonas@zagava.de. (This collectors' item can´t be ordered through our website.


picture.php


Then there is the newly designed and slightly revised second edition of Mark Valentine´s "WRAITHS". (A part of the first edition was "lost" in Romania)


The quintessential creation of the fin-de-siècle was a slim volume of decadent verse. The attraction of the Eighteen Nineties to many aesthetes and bibliophiles is the appearance of a few exquisitely-produced books of poems in severely limited editions of a few hundred or less. But what of those whose work was even more elusive and ethereal – the poets whose verses have not survived at all? In the first known essay of its kind, Mark Valentine revives the memory of five strange and tragic Eighteen Nineties figures whose work seems utterly lost.
Continuing the theme of lost works, Valentine also discusses a macabre thriller written by Nineties poet Ernest Dowson in collaboration with an Oxford friend, Arthur Moore. It was completed, but never published, and the whereabouts of any manuscript are now unknown. Valentine reconstructs the theme and plot of The Passion of Dr Ludovicus, using the ebullient letters between the two authors. The lost shocker emerges as a rival to Stevenson’s ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ and the essay is a fascinating response to a tantalising mystery.

Designed in tribute to the art of the fin de siècle, this exquisite book includes exotic illustrations by Ronald Balfour, in the mode of Aubrey Beardsley.
50 hand-numbered paperback copies only, beautiful dustjacket made from hand-made Italian paper. Price is € 38.00 Euro plus € 5.00 recorded shipping, Shipping starts in about 2 weeks. www.zagava.de

picture.php



Next from Zagava will be "BOOKLORE"!
Contributors to this stunning anthology about the passion for books are (in alphabetical order):
Carl Abrahamsson
Avalon Brantley
Brian Catling
Brendan Connell
Quentin S. Crisp
Richard Gavin
Martin Hayes
Colin Insole
Timothy J. Jarvis
Andrew Liles
Chris Mikul
Daniel Mills
Reggie Oliver
Thomas Phillips
Ray B. Russell
Michael Siefener
Thomas Stromsholt
Supervert
Mark Valentine
DP Watt
Jonathan Wood


Edited by Alcebiades Diniz.
Illustrations by Erika Seguín Colás.
More information will follow in due course!

For those of you who like the art of Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson (of Coil, Throbbing Gristle, etc. etc): I had the pleasure to film a short promotional video with one of the book's co-editors Claus Laufenburg for the stunning 60th anniversary edition (http://www.timeless-shop.com/prod/peter-christopherson-60th-anniversary-edition-2184,73.html) by fellow publisher Timeless Editions:

https://vimeo.com/145122049


 Music by Thighpaulsandra with Jhonn Balance (unreleased)


Looking very much forward to hear from you,
kindest regards,
Jonas


www.zagava.de
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zagava/1399337637008522?fref=ts



Looking very much forward to hear from you,
kindest regards,
Jonas



0
 
Dear all,

I am sure some of you will be excited to know that Zagava is about to issue a translation of the first issue of 'Die Orchideengarten'. Its up for order on their website here:

http://www.zagava.de/

'Die Orchideengarten' was the worlds first fantasy magazine (predating Weird Tales by a number of years). It only ran for 51 issues from 1919-1921 and is now generally remembered for its amazing artwork: colour covers and grotesque imagery by well known names such as Alfred Kubin plus a host of unknowns. A google search will reveal a lot of superb images.

What makes the new edition interesting is that it will reprint the tales in English as well as the original German. I know that some issues included writers such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Victor Hugo and the like but once again there are a whole number of 'unknowns' (to non German readers) so there are bound to be some gems seeing translation for the first time.

I'm generally not a fan of 'Weird Tales' as, barring those truly great authors we know and love, most of the content was terrible filler material. However I have high hopes for 'Die Orchideengarten' as it was jointly edited by Karl Strobl who is, at his best, was a really great writer with very odd images (decadent clubs taking up circus skills, the thoughts of a severed head as it moves towards its decay etc) so with him at the helm there is a lot of potential for oddness.

Its one of the few things this year I am really looking forward to hence my gushing recommendation!

REGARDS!

J
 
Hi Robert,
I believe it will go all the way if enough people want it to, and who wouldn't?
I've never seen the really late issues (the third year) and recently some early copies went for $30+ per issue. I think many folks collect them for the artwork and now folks/archives have cottoned onto the fact that its the world first fantasy/strange story magazine, so it has historical value regardless of the contents.
J
 
I noticed Helen Grant is doing the translation.
Is this the author of The Sea Change over at Swan River?
 
5 new & forthcoming books, including a Mark Samuels & what looks like the beginning of a trilogy from the most excellent Louis Marvick. Zagava seems to be on fire, indeed!
 
I purchased the "Strange Case of Jan Torrentius" 6 volume boxset by Brian Howell from Zagava - and must say I am impressed, the presentation is impeccable, but beyond the fine craftmanship lies a real treasure of a book. The full tale of that most enigmatic of Dutch painters, the camera obscura and possible "rose cross madness" had originally been cut in half (with the second half cut straight from the middle of the entire text and leaving out many of the allusions to Rosicrucianism) and published as "The Stream and the Torrent" in Zagava's and EOP's short and now terminated run of joint publications. Why the text has been edited as it was is absolutely beyond me (to fit the then current preferred series format of books?) -

It's a pleasure to now have the text with multiple addenda as originally envisioned by the author. It makes much more sense now. It's a sumptuous visually stunning production, using the only surviving artwork by Torrentius for the highly decorative slipcase and just the border of the only surviving portrait of the artist as the cover for all 6 hardback volumes. The set features additional small book-/leaflets for acknowledgements, sources, 2 prologues, 1 epilogue and a signed and numbered limitation card. A masterful and restrained piece of craftmanship without the overboarding pinterest-derived artwork overkill found elsewhere.

People who own the earlier and erratically edited version even get a chance of purchasing a box with just the missing pieces of text (3 books), all the extras and a slipcase that will hold the older book and the 3 new ones. This is what I call a publishing victory.
Apparently there are only a handful of copies of both versions available still.

Now is good time to head over to Zagava.... new volumes by both Mark Samuels and Thomas Phillips (this should be fantastic!) up for pre-order and much more upcoming greatness advertised. - Zagava
 
Thujone, I read your comments and hurried to my mailbox.
Empty.
My Torrentius set has not arrived yet, alas, but I am glad others are receiving theirs.
 
I think Zagava has unsigned, unnumbered sets of Brian Howell's magnum opus "The Curious Case of Jan Torrentius" on sale right now. I just picked one up and am emailing to confirm. I thought these were completely gone.
 
Bough

Stephen Clark's The Feathered Bough landed in my mailbox less than an hour ago.
Oversized and packed with artwork.
One of those books I started leafing through, saying, "Oh, my!"
Last book I read by Clark was In Delirium's Circle and I have high expectations for this.
 
"Stephen Clark's The Feathered Bough landed in my mailbox less than an hour ago."

Very cool! I have been waiting on this and The Irregular Casebook for some time now. Hopefully, my copies will come soon!
 
I ordered this a little late. Was obviously not paying attention. Should be on its way to me and I'm stupidly excited about it. In Delirium's Circle was outstanding.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top