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'Lane's prose delivers a vicious blow to our soft, nostalgic places; like finding a discarded gig flyer from years gone by, ripe and brimming with memory. Divine, acerbic and essential.' – Matt Wesolowski, author of Demon 'A poet of misfits, outsiders and the forsaken, his empathy for their suffering ever poignant.' – Adam Nevill, author of The Ritual Birmingham, early 1990s. Triangle are a cult act on the post-punk scene, led by brilliant and troubled vocalist Karl – a man haunted by past violence and present danger, torn between fame and oblivion, men and women, music and silence. Triangle's bass player, David, is struggling to make sense of Karl's reality as the band start to make waves in the music scene and Karl starts to come apart in a blur of sex and drinking. First published in 2000, Joel Lane's debut novel From Blue to Black is a story of passion, blood and alcohol, broken strings and broken lives – a piercing voyage through our musical and political past that cuts to the bone. WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY KERRY HADLEY-PRYCE
'One of the best British post-war writers of horror and the weird.' – Adam Nevill, author of The Ritual Joel Lane (1963-2013) was one of the UK's foremost writers of dark, unsettling fiction, a frank explorer of sexuality and the transgressive aspects of human nature. With a tight focus on the post-industrial Black Country and his home city of Birmingham, he created a distinct form of British urban weird fiction. Scar City is one of the final collections put together before his death in 2013 – with his home city of Birmingham as their nucleus, these are intense, haunting and often painful stories from a master of the short form. WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY NICHOLAS ROYLE
'Joel Lane's imagination is bleak. But it is also the imagination of a poet.' – M John Harrison, author of The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY CONRAD WILLIAMS Set in a post-industrial landscape of the present, the near future, and the imagined, Joel Lane's seminal collection The Lost District explores human encounters with the unknown: sexual discovery, drug-inspired visions, the lonely paths of madness, and the shadow realms on the other side of death. A neighbourhood fades into corrupt echoes of itself; a porn actor's scars reveal the forces controlling his life; a musician is haunted by the madness of a deceased singer; and a man literally follows his ex-love...
Steeped in the spirit of James M. Cain and Jim Thomspon, this new anthology of Birmingham-based thrillers combine graphic realism with emotional poignancy to offer taut, gripping stories that will unsettle and unnerve. Featured authors include: John Harvey, author of the best-selling Resnick novels; acclaimed novelist Nicholas Royle and feminist crime writer Judith Cutler, as well as a gang of rising noir talents. The book will be previewed at the Birmingham ArtFest in September, and review coverage is targeted throughout the local and national media.
Few cities have undergone such a radical transformation over the last few decades as Birmingham. Culturally and architecturally, it has been in a state of perpetual flux and regeneration, with new communities moving in, then out, and iconic post-war landmarks making way for brighter-coloured, 21st century flourishes. Much like the city itself, the characters in the stories gathered here are often living through moments of profound change, closing in on a personal or societal turning point, that carries as much threat as it does promise. Set against key moments of history – from Malcolm X’s visit to Smethwick in 1965, to the Handsworth riots two decades later, from the demise of the city’s manufacturing in the 70s and 80s, to the on-going tensions between communities in recent years – these stories celebrate the cultural dynamism that makes this complex, often divided ‘second city’ far more than just the sum of its parts.
'A masterwork of paranoid, destabilizing weird fiction.' – Paul Tremblay, author of The Pallbearers Club 'A poet of misfits, outsiders and the forsaken, his empathy for their suffering ever poignant.' – Adam Nevill, author of The Ritual 'Stark and thrumming with a forbidden, eldritch energy.' – Matt Wesolowski, author of Demon
'A poet of misfits, outsiders and the forsaken, his empathy for their suffering ever poignant.' – Adam Nevill, author of The Ritual 'Joel Lane understood and expertly exploited the connection between exterior and interior landscapes like no other.' – Paul Tremblay, author of The Pallbearer's Club
On October 18, 2011 Joel and his family's life changed forever when his older brother and best friend Mathieu was hit and killed by the driver of a 28 ton crane truck. Mathieu, an artist, was riding his bike home from his art studio in Brooklyn, NY. The tragedy made headlines on CNN, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Maclean's Magazine, the CBC, and many other news agencies in Canada and the US. Through his eyes Joel gives first-hand knowledge of what it's been like to go up against one of the world's largest police forces, the NYPD. It took Joel and his family six years to discover the truth about how his brother was killed. In his own straight forward and heartfelt way, Joel speaks of the grief, sadness, anger and frustration he felt during his family's long fight for justice. Joel was inspired to write this story to raise awareness about traffic safety and to show others who are victims of injustice that they have a voice and that they can make a difference. He hopes his story will inspire others who are struggling against injustice.
Joel Lane's award-winning stories have been widely praised, notably by other masters of weird fiction such as M. John Harrison, Graham Joyce, and Ramsey Campbell. His tales also regularly appeared in the "best of" annual anthologies of Ellen Datlow, Karl Edward Wagner, and Stephen Jones. With this posthumous collection, Lane continues his unflinching exploration of the human condition. "The Anniversary of Never is a group of tales concerned with the theme of the afterlife," observed Lane, "and the idea that we may enter the afterlife before death, or find parts of it in our world." These stories of love and death will burrow deep into the reader's mind and impregnate it with a vision often as bleak as the night is black.