The Signatory

Kirk Marshall

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The Signatory is a wild and enthralling novella from Kirk Marshall, an emerging Australian writer and editor of the Red Leaves bi-lingual literary journal. This mind-bending tale of Scottish cryptozoology must be read to be believed as it blusters and dallies with the mad antics of the strange British dilettante, Sebastian Sackworth. It is at times reminiscent of the nonsense literature of Lewis Carroll et al – and yet displaying more contemporary (dare we say) ‘borgesian’ stylistics. A delightfully absurd dramatis personae pits together a misanthropic anthropologist and a lusty Italian ornithologist on a madcap search for a rare Red Swan, soon to be joined by an Icelandic recluse, a chimpanzee, and a notorious pirate, to name a few. Along the way, Marshall manages somehow to mix in odd polemics on public transport sex, the science of moats, and the mysterious Scottish landscape.

Labyrinthine and surreal fiction is little-explored territory but those that dabble in such refinery will be delighted by this offering. Marshall’s polyglot mind and gymnastic vocabulary make this a novel to be savoured in miniature bites. In such, perhaps the author provides the best summary in his own words: “The Signatory is a phantasmagoric comedy that offers readers a cautionary tale of Scotland, the Scotland of dislocated nightmare, of demented cryptozoology, and it signifies the closest result to an end product if César Aira and Charles Portis collaborated on the screenplay for Withnail & I.”

A young, award-winning Australian writer, Kirk Marshall originates from Brisbane, Queensland, but is now actively engaged in Melbourne as a writer and teacher of Literature and Media (Film & TV Studies) at RMIT University. He is still an up-and-coming fiction writer but has been duly noted in some academic circles, most recently being awarded the 2010 Wet Ink Short-Story Prize and the 2010 Booranga Prize from Charles Sturt University for Best Short Story. He also won previous prizes at The Children’s Book Council of Australia and the Brisbane Short-Story Competition for youth. Rather fittingly, he has served as a panellist for the Emerging Writer’s Festival for multiple years and edits the English/Japanese bi-lingual literary journal, Red Leaves / 紅葉, with Yasuhiro Horiuchi.

  • ISBN: 978-1-908011-41-1
  • 128 pages
  • cover art by Liberty Browne
  • perfect-bound paperback: 216mm x 140mm
  • black and white text
  • published 26th March 2012