Log of the S.S. The Mrs Unguentine (Faber Editions) - Introduced by Julia Armfield

INTRODUCED BY JULIA ARMFIELD
'Strange and exhilarating . . . Virtuosic . . . Crawford makes something utterly, delightfully, memorably new' KATIE KITAMURA

I sailed that ship. I sailed it every nautical inch of our marriage.

A woman falls in love with a sailor: a biblically-bearded man who grows seasick on land. Over forty years of marriage they roam the seas on a fantastical vessel: a barge teeming with lush vegetation under a glass dome.

But trapped on this floating garden, their union disintegrates - just as civilisation is changing beyond recognition. Their island forest transforms into artificial trees shedding plastic leaves from mechanical branches. What is this new planet? And amidst the flotsam and jetsam of a marriage – and a world – can there ever be hope?

An apocalyptic climate prophecy, a sea-faring epic, a magical realist eco-fable, a genius allegory, Stanley Crawford’s 1972 masterpiece is undefinable. It is a voyage you will never forget.

On and on. Forever. That man. These seas…