Agents of Oblivion - by Iain Sinclair (Paperback)

About the Book

As host, as oracle, Iain Sinclair moves through this quartet of tales, through a spectral London that once was, or might never have been.

Book Synopsis

"How long have things been coming apart in this way?" - The Lure of Silence

"Generally speaking the dead do not return," pronounced Antonin Artaud. But the dead are permitted to visit those who welcome them. Their spectral, machine-made voices echo in deep tunnels under London. Voices without hosts. Without agency. They make their oracular pronouncements even when nobody is listening on the vast empty platforms of the Elizabeth Line. They have their codes and their secret meanings.

Four stories starting everywhere and finishing in madness. Four acknowledged guides. Four tricksters. Four inspirations. Algernon Blackwood. Arthur Machen. J. G. Ballard. H. P. Lovecraft. They are known as "Agents of Oblivion". And sometimes, in brighter light, as oblivious angels . . .

As host, as oracle, Iain Sinclair moves through this quartet of tales, through a spectral London that once was, or might never have been.

Review Quotes

"Nobody can do more with a sentence's cadence, diction and imagery than Sinclair." - Washington Post

"In his unique, sinewed style. For no-one can write / Like Iain Sinclair on this planet, and indeed, / While reading one detects an empirically alien view" - International Times

"[Sinclair's] writing is inspiring, teasing and often revelatory. He explores themes I enjoy: London as Blake saw it, the New Jerusalem shining through in the city's occult geometry, its history both mundane but primarily of mysticism, of the weird, as told by its writers past and present, of Swedenborg, Machen, Ballard, Blackwood." - Flapjacks and Coffee

"With his lensman's eye and his poet's gift for glowing, precise language, Sinclair illuminates and sometimes terrifies the soul! Augmented by a profusion of images by his old partner Dave McKean, Agents of Oblivion is probably one of the best collections of fiction I have read. I expect it to bear many fresh insights in years to come." - Michael Moorcock