Six months in Normandy is no year in Provence.
‘A rather special art object, triptych, story, wonder-book’ – Jeff Young, author of Ghost Town
‘The Edge of the Object is a stunning book not only as a physical object, but also as a piece of writing.’ – Karen Langley, Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings
Daniel Williams’ first novel is a playful exploration of words and space, and of presence and absence, both on the page and in the mind of the narrator.
Leaving 1990s London and his Leica behind, a young photographer goes to live in France, already feeling sated by the city and his two obsessions: photography and music. He is also putting distance between himself and Louise, the woman he loves, in a likely ill-conceived attempt to test the strength of the relationship. In Normandy, a derelict cottage awaits him, and there he condemns himself to a minimum of six months’ solitary confinement.
But before long another siren city calls; he is lured away from his hermit-like existence to stay with friends in Paris, and then to go on tour with two up-and-coming indie bands: Solar Plexus and the Faceless Saints. Amid the controlled chaos of life on tour, the photographer meets a woman called Sophie with whom he becomes infatuated. After the tour is over, the attraction leads him to break free of his solitude for a second time, and return to the south of France, hoping to discover that she feels the same way about him.
A visually arresting triptych, written predominantly in striking second person prose, The Edge of the Object is a study of love, music, alienation, and of France through the lens of a Francophile, captured in a sequence of stunning calligrams.
The first original novel to be published by the Half Pint Press, this limited edition consists of three digitally printed, perfect bound books in a handmade case.
Praise for The Edge of the Object
‘Like The Book of Disquiet, the individual ‘episodes’ of parts one and three of The Edge of the Object can be dipped into and enjoyed on their merits as stand-alone pieces. Each are rich in their excavation of language, evocative of place, moment, person, hope, regret, whatever. They could be photographs piled loose in a drawer, plucked at random and enjoyed for their unique qualities. Being human however, the impulse to connect and create story from distinct elements is strong, and Williams adeptly weaves these notional photographs into a tapestry that balances self-reflective and personal memory with broader strokes of recognisable, translatable themes and experiences.
‘Straddling the line between book as object, of literature as idea, and the perhaps more traditional landscape of narrative comfort, The Edge of the Object manages to balance these elements into an absorbing and thoroughly enjoyable work.’ – Alistair Fitchett, Caught by the River
‘He has a journalistic eye for detail, snapping word-images in lieu of photos and placing scene after scene in front of the reader with aplomb.’ – Sean D. Stewart, author of A Set of Lines
‘The design is stunning, two of the volumes featuring calligrams in the form of images either wrapped by the text, or which the text forms; these images are, of course, a main point of each page. The book is brilliantly constructed so that the image and text therefore complement each other, and the calligrams force the mind to focus on the meaning behind each page. … The immediacy of the second person narrative draws you in completely, and I found myself totally absorbed from the first page. The writing is often lyrical, the setting vividly conjured and the wonderful calligrams really add to the experience of reading the book.’ – Karen Langley, Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings
The Edge of the Object by Daniel Williams
Three-volume limited edition with handmade case and ebook
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The Edge of the Object 