Revelation

by R J Dent

From the publisher (Incunabula Media):

‘REVELATION by R J Dent is a chilling short novel dealing with the death of affect and the emotional and moral vacuum growing in the heart of our western society – encapsulated in the form of a marriage spiralling into disaster and almost insanity. When I read this I thought “I’ve found the thinking man’s Ian McEwan”. It’s very very good and very very nasty.’

‘There’s neither blame nor guilt on anyone’s part for what happened. And even if I were to want to apportion blame, I can’t think who the right person to blame would be. But I don’t want to point any accusing fingers because at the time everyone had a very lovely time…’

Revelation is the story of a married woman who agrees to fulfil one of her husband’s sexual fantasies – only to discover that a beautiful gift can become a malevolent curse. After one act of decadent abandon, she is drawn into a maelstrom of emotional devastation that threatens to destroy everything she holds dear, leading her to make the ultimate sacrifice…

Book details:

Title: Revelation

Author: R J Dent

ISBN: 978-1-4466-0288-1

Language: English

Format: Paperback

Pages: 70

Cover Design: D M Mitchell

Publishing Date: January 18th 2024

Publisher: Incunabula Media

Dimensions: (6 in x 9 in / 152 mm x 229 mm)

Purchase link: Incunabula Media: Incunabula Fiction – Revelation

Purchase Link: Lulu.com: Lulu.com/Revelation/RJDent/paperback

Amanda Hodgson’s goodreads review of Revelation: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6191529175?book_show_action=false

Incunabula Media: https://incunabulamedia.com/fiction

R J Dent: http://www.rjdent.com/

Microlives: A Compelling Collection of Flash Fiction Stories by Amanda Hodgson

A review by R J Dent

In her previous collection of short stories, Feed the Need, Amanda Hodgson looked unflinchingly at eating, food, digestion and consumption in all of its various permutations.

Microlives, subtitled, A Compelling Collection of Flash Fiction Stories is exactly what it says it is; a very compelling, and a very contemporary, collection of flash fictions about people linked by a specific location. And in Microlives, Amanda Hodgson shows us around a small block of flats in an unnamed city and introduces us to a range of characters, all going about their lives, trying to cope, trying to live, trying to survive, all trying to find tiny slices of joy in their hard existences.

As Amanda Hodgson warns: ‘Ria is tired. Pat is praying. Liam likes feet and Billy likes films. Microlives takes the reader to a small block of flats to hear the voices within. Find out why Claire is screaming and Join Della as she revisits her past.’

And we, as readers, do find out, although Amanda Hodgson offers no easy or pat solutions to the myriad problems life throws at her characters, with several of them unable to achieve any real sort of redemption at all.

The stories in Microlives are realistic, but they are most definitely not from the George Eliot or Thomas Hardy school of realism. Amanda Hodgson’s prose, influenced as it is by Jenny Diski (The Vanishing Princess, Nothing Natural, The Dream Mistress) and J.D. Salinger (Franny and Zooey, The Catcher in the Rye), is more akin to J.G. Ballard (High-Rise, Concrete Island) with her iced-scalpel turn of phrase and her psychological insights.

The stories in Microlives reward close reading because they give us (as readers) a better understanding of certain human conditions, human needs, and minor, but nonetheless important, human achievements.

Product Details:

Title: Microlives: A Compelling Collection of Flash Fiction Stories

Author: Amanda Hodgson

Format: Kindle Edition

File Size: 1207 KB

Published: August 2019

Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited

Language: English

ASIN: B07YK1Z56T

 

Purchase link (UK):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07YK1Z56T

Purchase link (US):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YK1Z56T

Purchase link (Aus):

https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07YK1Z56T

 

Microlives: A Compelling Collection of Flash Fiction Stories by Amanda Hodgson

A review by R J Dent