Recommended reading: Robert Davidson on under-recognized Belgian writer Jean Ray, whose books are being translated into English by @wakefield_press "For just under a century, nearly all of Ray’s strange tales have remained untranslated recherché texts. What little morsels out there in English have been gobbled up and lauded by preeminent writers of horror and the weird such as Stephen King, Michael Cisco, and Jeff VanderMeer. The obscurity coupled with the acclaim has created a curious vacuum, that feels, to borrow the eponymous adjective of translator Scott Nicolay, 'Rayen.' Like Philip K. Dick, Ray’s life and legacy largely resemble one of his own plots. However, this is beginning to change as American independent publisher Wakefield Press has taken it upon themselves to resurrect Ray’s vast output, translating many of Ray’s books from French into English for the first time. Working through Ray’s volumes chronologically, Wakefield Press has already published Ray’s first four works in English, the short-story collections 'Whiskey Tales,' 'The Cruise of Shadows,' 'The Great Nocturnal' and 'Circles of Dread.' To read through the collections is to uncover a missing link within the weird.…However, it’s the appearance of the fifth Ray book published by Wakefield Press that has been most anticipated. Widely regarded as Ray’s magnum opus and one of the key texts in the development of the weird, 'Malpertuis' has been difficult to find in English since its limited run in 1998.… When the clouds of unknowing eventually clear at the end of the novel and 'Malpertuis’s' raison d’être is unveiled, the dénouement is nothing short of majestic. A stunning resolution that absorbs all that comes before and leaves a crater in its wake that you feel many writers are still digging their way out of. A crater that says defiantly, Jean Ray got here first. Its climax unifies the reader and those who managed to escape the stone mansion, blasting them both with the gnosis that, “you will leave 'Malpertuis,' but 'Malpertuis' will follow you through your life”. Read the full review via linkinbio. #jeanray #malpertius #wakefieldpress #belgianpoe #horror #weird https://www.instagram.com/p/CWGNqOnFPF_/?utm_medium=tumblr
