{"product_id":"the-transgressionists-and-other-disquieting-works-five-tales-of-weird-fiction","title":"The Transgressionists and Other Disquieting Works: Five Tales of Weird Fiction by De Maria, Giorgio","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"A disturbing, unsettling novel . . . if it had been published in English soon after its first appearance in Italian (1968), the name of Giorgio De Maria would be well-known, his novels and stories mentioned in the context of J.G. Ballard, Anna Kavan, Shirley Jackson or Robert Aickman.\"--Lisa Tuttle, Nebula Award winner and author of \u003ci\u003eGabriel\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWindhaven, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Before an untimely mental breakdown cut short his two-decade career, Giorgio De Maria distinguished himself as one of Italy's most unique and eccentric weird fiction masters. With a background in the post-war literary culture of Turin -- Italy's urbane but eerie \"city of black magic\" -- De Maria drew inspiration from the Turinese underbelly of occultism, secret societies and radical politics. His writing coincided with the decade of terrorist violence known to Italians as the Years of Lead; the outcome was a weird fiction suffused with panic, rage, trauma, paranoia and meditations on antisocial hubris. In 1978, he told an interviewer: \"...I think that the dimension of the fantastic, as much as this may seem paradoxical, is the most fitting one to express a reality as complex as ours today.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e De Maria's debut novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Transgressionists \u003c\/i\u003e(1968) portrays a cell of malicious telepaths who meet in the caf s and jazz clubs of 1960s Turin to plot world domination. After experiencing the worst of their power, an embittered office clerk resolves to join them and prove himself worthy to share in their villainy. He cultivates twisted mindfulness techniques to awaken his inner sociopath. He fights off predatory phantoms that seem maddeningly drawn to him. He prepares for the dangerous \"Great Leap\" which will make him into a fully-fledged Transgressionist. But could his megalomania strain relations with his fiancee? Will he sacrifice love in his quest for omnipotence? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The other works in this volume are no less surreal and startling. \u003ci\u003eThe Secret Death of Joseph Dzhugashvili\u003c\/i\u003e (1976) gives us a nightmarish fantasy Soviet Union, where a dissident poet finds himself trapped in a psychological experiment conducted by Stalin himself. In \"The End of Everydayism,\" a group of futuristic artists begin using corpses as a medium -- with violent, unforeseen results. The antihero of \"General Trebisonda\" is a possibly insane commander who prepares for a war crime in an eerily deserted fortress. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Available in English for the first time, this collection contains two novellas, two short stories and a dystopian teleplay, \u003ci\u003eThe Appeal\u003c\/i\u003e, which the post-cyberpunk novelist Andrea Vaccaro has lauded as \"worthy of the best episodes of \u003ci\u003eBlack Mirror\u003c\/i\u003e.\" Meanwhile, an introduction by translator Ramon Glazov offers a detailed account of De Maria's background, creative context and thoroughly unusual life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Giorgio De Maria\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Talos\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/12\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 264\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.71lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.93h x 6.06w x 0.71d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781945863639\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGIORGIO DE MARIA (1924-2009) was an Italian novelist, musician, critic and playwright. Devoting himself to fiction after an illness cut short his career as a pianist, he wrote four novels (two of which are included in this volume), two plays for stage and television, and several short stories. A second tragedy curtailed his literary career in the 1980s and he spent the final thirty years of his life struggling with mental illness and writing no significant works. Out of print for decades, De Maria was, until recently, better remembered as a songwriter than for his weird fiction. This situation changed in 2017 when Liveright released an English translation of his last novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Twenty Days of Turin\u003c\/i\u003e (1977). Republished in Italy and hailed as the \"one true cursed Italian novel,\" it has led to an ongoing rediscovery of De Maria as both a weird fiction master and a lost pillar of Italian modernism. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e RAMON GLAZOV is a translator, fiction author, reviewer and doctoral student based in Melbourne, Australia. His writing has appeared in \u003ci\u003eOverland\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eJacobin\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Monthly\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTincture Journal \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Saturday Paper\u003c\/i\u003e. He has also translated Giorgio De Maria's \u003ci\u003eThe Twenty Days of Turin\u003c\/i\u003e (Liveright, 2017).\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Talos","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42495882657945,"sku":"9781945863639","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0572\/3367\/0297\/files\/img_c8322c1e-51c8-4a5a-ae69-30212ff2b505.jpg?v=1724523280","url":"https:\/\/bookmarksretail.store\/products\/the-transgressionists-and-other-disquieting-works-five-tales-of-weird-fiction","provider":"Bookmarks Retail","version":"1.0","type":"link"}