Join us for an evening of conversation with Britain's greatest living writer M. John Harrison to celebrate the reissue of his beguiling, unsettling, and brilliant novel The Course of The Heart.
Harrison will be interviewed by the novelist Julia Armfield.
On a hot May night, three Cambridge students carry out a ritualistic act that changes their lives. Decades later, none of the participants can remember what transpired; but their clouded memories bind them together. Unable to move on, Pam Stuyvesant has epilepsy and is plagued by sensual visions. Her husband Lucas believes that a dwarfish creature is stalking him, and invents histories to soothe Pam's fears. Self-styled Sorcerer Yaxley becomes obsessed with a terrifyingly transcendent reality. The narrator is seemingly the least effected participant in the ritual: he is haunted by the smell of roses, and his guilt as he attempts to help his friends escape the torment that has engulfed their lives.
Strange, dreamlike and moving, The Course of the Heart is an examination of the edges of humanity where we lie, hide, hurt and heal.
A gloriously intelligent, beautifully written and thoroughly maddening book - Independent
A spare textual elegance and closure-denying restraint [that] impresses and fulfills - Iain Banks, Guardian
Incisive pen portraits and quiet, elegant prose - Lisa Tuttle, Guardian
One of the best writers currently at work in English - Robert Macfarlane, author of The Wild Places
Is M John Harrison the best writer at work today? He's certainly among the deftest and most original - Olivia Laing, Guardian
