Lavie Tidhar (The Bookman; Unholy Land; A Man Lies Dreaming) is the author of the breakout Campbell and Neukom award-winning novel Central Station, which has been translated into ten languages. He has also received the British Science Fiction, Neukom Literary, and World Fantasy awards. Tidhar was born in Israel, grew up on a kibbutz, has lived in south Africa, Laos, and Vanuatu, and currently resides in London.
Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation
Locus Recommended Reading List
Den of Geek Top New Fantasy Book
An AFPL Journal Best New Book
A Foreword Book of The Day "Tidhar is a spellbinding stylist with a
spell-casting imagination. Part fantasy, part sci-fi, part surreal
mainstream, this novel plonks the reader into a vast, surreal
landscape, the Escapement, in which clowns and stone monsters and
cowboys and classic fictional characters coexist in a shifting
tableau. The Stranger is our hero, a warrior searching for mythical
flowers, even as in another universe he sits at his sick boy's side
in a hospital. None of this should work but all of it does, the
author managing to evoke sadness, awe, and even humor. I could only
compare my reading to old Philip K. Dick married to Samuel R.
Delaney. The Escapement is a captivating triumph of
imagination."
--Watch "A father wrangles with his impending grief in a steampunk,
Wild West alternate universe in Lavie Tidhar's dazzling novel The
Escapement . . . Those who enter the Escapement should strap
themselves in for horrors and wonders galore. Filled with contorted
fairy tales, myths, and familiar stories, Lavie Tidhar's latest
novel is both a fantastical diversion and a moving articulation of
deep parental love."
--Foreword "Can we just all admit now that Lavie Tidhar's a genius?
He's written another brilliant book--a beautiful fever dream that
somehow manages to be laugh-out-loud funny, psychedelically weird,
and deeply moving."
--Daryl Gregory, award-winning author of Spoonbenders "To say The
Escapement is unique sells it way short. It's part weird western
and part quest; half dream and half epic adventure tale set in a
memorable Daliesque landscape. Tidhar lets his imagination run wild
in this vivid book, all told in spare, beautiful prose."
--Richard Kadrey, bestselling author of the Sandman Slim series
"Comic, tragic, and utterly magnificent--a masterpiece of fantasy.
Lavie Tidhar has crafted a wonderfully strange and surreal world in
The Escapement, setting a liminal stage for both a gripping
adventure and a poignant meditation on grief. I can't wait to read
it again"
--Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree 5/5
stars "Lavie Tidhar's The Escapement (2021) is a fantastic and
fantastical fever dream of a novel, a Weird Western via Lewis
Carroll . . . Defying genre, defying categorization, even perhaps
defying plot, Tidhar has crafted a baroque hallucinatory tale. you
have to let wash over you as much as you read it."
--Fantasy Literature "Somewhere, in some city, a nameless man
attends his dying son's bedside, powerless to save the boy.
Desperate to find a cure, he slips into the Escapement: a Western
world of maniacal whimsy populated by bounty hunters, stone giants,
mimes, and clowns. Here, the ghost of John Wayne Gacy becomes a
bloodthirsty giant, and P.T. Barnum is recast as a clown-enslaving
general. The man, known in the Escapement as the Stranger, is not
alone; most of the people in this weird desert come there from the
real world by way of dream, drink, or death. Studded with features
like the Big Rock Candy Mountains and the Desert de Soleil, the
land bears intimate connections to the dying boy in the hospital
bed--a boy who loves the circus and its clowns--and it's here that
the Stranger hopes to find his son a panacea: Ur-shanabi, the Plant
of Heartbeat. In keeping with its roots in midcentury Westerns,
Tidhar's novel casts the Escapement's clowns as Native American
analogs, turning the Stranger into their White savior and avenger,
a man who knows that 'one should never be unkind to clowns.' The
author draws from an eclectic mix of sources to create a dazzling
story that is more than the sum of its parts, and much of the fun
of reading it comes from recognizing its homages. Knowledgeable
readers will notice shades of Stephen King, Lewis Carroll, and
Westworld here, and Tidhar himself cites Z. Ariel's fairy tale,
"The Heart of the Golden Flower," the Epic of Gilgamesh, Salvador
Dal�, tarot cards, and Sergio Leone as particular sources of
inspiration. A delightfully cacophonous novel, teeming with
character."
--Kirkus "The Escapement is absorbing, bizarre, haunting, and
compelling. Lavie Tidhar continues to shatter the boundaries of
literary and genre fiction with a novel that is equal parts
horrifying dreamscape and an affecting meditation on parental love.
There are a lot of books out there, but this is an experience."
--David Liss, author of The Peculiarities "Lavie Tidhar is a voice
to be reckoned with. With The Escapement, he fearlessly crests the
wave of the New New Weird with a wild, decadent hybrid of The Dark
Tower and Carnivale. A vivid beach read, if the beach was made of
greasepaint and gunpowder."
--Catherynne M. Valente, author of Deathless "A surreal blend of
Barnum and Bailey meets Stephen King's Dark Tower and Sergio
Leone's The Good, The Bad and the Ugly . . . The genius of Tidhar,
which he has repeatedly demonstrated, is that he can turn these
literary and pop culture references into a gripping, moving
narrative unlike anything you've read before."
--Locus "Tidhar has done a brilliant job not just of weaving
together a wide variety of myths and stories."
--Rebecca Glazer, author of My Throat is an Open Grave "These
shifts of consciousness between worlds and the drawing of themes
and symbols from one reality into another remind me of Iain Banks'
The Bridge. But The Escapement is an original masterpiece that is
all Tidhar, full of echoes of his earlier stories and novels."
--Sci Fi Mind "Like nothing else you've read. I'd recommend it
entirely on that basis, but it's also beautifully written,
thoughtful and deep, and resonant for anyone who's been a parent,
or a child."
--Andrew Wheeler, Antic Musings "[The Escapement] feels like a
surrealist cartoon co-written by Dr. Seuss and Ray Bradbury."
--Forward "This was the weirdest book I think have ever read, and I
loved every minute of it."
--Into the Heart Wyld "5/5 stars. The descriptions are amazing
throughout and the clown world is incredibly creative and
imaginative. I loved some of the imagery here and never knew what
surprise I would find on the next page."
--Hidden in Pages "Yes, there's a narrative thread to follow
throughout the book, but it's only here in order for Tidhar to
masterfully weave all sorts of different things together that make
the reader's brain explode, or at the very least make readers shake
their heads in bewilderment, but, ultimately, wonderment."
--Mt Void "If you're a fan of bizarre fantasy world, absurdist
stories or even magical realism, I think this book is perfect for
you . . . The writing is very fluid, beautiful and fever
dream-like."
--The Ink Slinger "Surreal, twisted and unusual but also incredibly
intriguing. I think this is one of those books you would get more
out of on every read. It's almost begging to be read more than
once. And at its very core, I can't help but get Dark Tower vibes
from this book. I really enjoyed it!"
--Of Worlds Forgotten Praise for Lavie Tidhar On Central Station
John W. Campbell Award Winner / Neukom Literary Arts Award Winner/
Arthur C. Clarke Award Finalist / NPR Best Books / Barnes and Noble
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy / Locus Recommended Reading
List
"Beautiful, original, a shimmering tapestry of connections and
images."
--Alastair Reynolds, author of the Revelation Space series "A
dazzling tale of complicated politics and even more complicated
souls. Beautiful."
--Ken Liu, author of The Grace of Kings [STARRED REVIEW] "Readers
of all persuasions will be entranced."
--Publishers Weekly [STARRED REVIEW] "A fascinating future glimpsed
through the lens of a tight-knit community."
--Library Journal
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