The Age of Wire and String

The Age of Wire and String
Genre : Fiction
Published : 2 May 2013 - Granta
The first illustrated edition.

This is a handbook for surviving a strange new world, both like and unlike our own, one in which language has undergone a surreal revolution and words can no longer be trusted. Bold, brilliant and unique, THE AGE OF WIRE AND STRING is a classic of innovative fiction from a recognized master of the form, beautifully illustrated by Catrin Morgan.

Reviews

This novel has a place within the chaotic tradition of Sterne's Tristram Shandy. [If] novels are to reflect the complexities of the modern world, they must take on some of its messy characteristics... Intelligent and good-humoured.

Andrew Biswell, Daily Telegraph

Reading Ben Marcus ... challenges your expectations and takes you to a new level. Try it.

We Love This Book

This rebirth of the book has rendered it even more compelling as a part guide, part textbook for a world that seems absurdist and dystopian and confusing.

The West Australian

I’m not going to say that this illustrated edition of Ben Marcus’s 1995 book THE AGE OF WIRE AND STRING is an improvement on the original text – I love it too much to want to risk insulting it… – but it’s certainly a most interesting version of it, or response to it.

The Independent Book Design Blog

I was engrossed from page one to the very end... THE AGE OF WIRE AND STRING works on so many levels that a new piece of this world will probably become apparent with every reread, even if you read it over a hundred times.

Bookmunch

A brain rattling collection of experimental fictions ... There are shades of Beckett in the playful obsessive language twiddling, and although the text is 18 years old, THE AGE OF WIRE AND STRING still seems cutting edge.

Dazed & Confused

Near-genius ... This will become a collectors' edition: love it.

Monocle

Showing 5 of 7 reviews