God complex

Rachael Allen

A sweeping and corrosive epic, a narrative poem that tells the story of the breakup of a toxic relationship in the face of the similarly toxic catastrophe of global degradation and disaster. Through the fiery and unstable speaker of the poem, these conditions become fused, lending themselves to the depiction of unutterable thoughts and seams of emotion. Measuring the impact of pollutants through an instrument of bodily grief and loss, perspective starts to blur and logic distorts, creating an entwining of human and landscape that culminates in a hallucinogenic alternative reality. Loss is divined everywhere, in human relations, in the ruptures of class and privilege, in the poisoning of the planet. But it is through the purgatorial leavening of pain that the narrator works towards a more devotional life, one that derives healing from the delicate, persistent systems of a nonhuman landscape.

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Description

LONGLISTED FOR THE LAUREL PRIZE

God Complex
is a sweeping and corrosive epic, a narrative poem that tells the story of the breakdown of a relationship against a backdrop of progressive environmental degradation.

A grieving body moves through states of toxicity, becoming an instrument for measuring the impact of pollutants. an entwining of human and non-human, built environment and natural landscape blurs perspective and distorts logic, creating an erratic decline into disorder. Loss is divined everywhere: in human relations, in the ruptures of class and privilege, and the poisoning of the planet.

It is through a purgatorial leavening of pain that the narrator comes to terms with the delicate, shifting states of the ecological systems that merge with and surround us to create new forms of being and devotion. The result is visionary – a book that vibrates with urgency and feeling.

‘This is a very fine book, quite unlike anything I’ve seen for a long time. It deserves to be read, and read again, and savoured.’ Matt Merritt, Magma

Additional information

Weight 0.14 kg
Dimensions 19.8 × 13.2 × 0.9 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

88

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

821.92 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K