“I’ve discovered something they don’t know. Or they do know and are hiding it.”
John Howard’s Leaves of Ash returns to Steaua de Munte, a timeless place in Central Europe, where a janitor at the university has pieced together the secrets of the city. Under the shadow of the authorities, he devises an unusual way of alerting the townsfolk to the results of his researches. The author’s previous titles with this setting include The Silver Voices, The Defeat of Grief, Numbered as Sand or the Stars, and The Lustre of Time.
Jo Valentine’s design responds to the story’s theme with a Coptic-stitched concertina book cased in boards with ash grey buckram. The miniature book is concealed in a ‘matchbox’. The endpapers and ‘matchbox’ label depict mascarons from a Romanian castle, photographed by Jo Valentine.
This is the latest handmade publication from the Valentine & Valentine imprint. It is in a limited, numbered edition of 25 copies only (+ iii not for sale).
Update 2 August - all copies have now been taken. Thanks for the very keen interest in this book.
By far the nicest literary item I have seen this year.
ReplyDeleteRobert Browning got it right: less is more.
- Les Editions de L'Oubli