It’s some 600,000 1 million words long, he’s been working on it for over a decade…and Alan Moore’s epic novel Jerusalem is getting published next year. Knockabout will publish it in the UK while W.W. Norton imprint Liveright will publish it in the US. As described in many interviews, the novel involves Moore’s hometown of Northhampton and is written in many styles:
He has also mentioned the varying styles of each chapter: among them, one modeled after a Samuel Beckett play, another written in “a completely invented sub-Joycean text” and another “somewhat in the style of Dos Passos.” The book will include appearances by John Bunyan and Buffalo Bill.
This isn’t Moore’s first novel—that would be Voice Of The Fire. It should be quite the literary event, however, and it will be interesting to see how a mainstream literary publishing house handles the rollout.
(Photo by Murdo Macleod from The Guardian.)
I should probably try to finish Voice of the Fire soon….
Has he really edited down 40% of the book? Wow.
600k words is +/- 1500 pages at a readable type size. Longer than WAR AND PEACE.
I wonder if anyone will ever write a novel about Jerusalem and title it “Northampton.”
I can’t resist the image of a carefully selected patch of forest near Northampton being selected, mowed down and churned into pulp for the paper to print it on…
Well, it must be a rather impressive work as the folks at Liveright & Co. would not have considered taking it on. While the first draft may come in at a million words, there’s undoubtedly going to be a lot of carving and shaping to be done. Congrats to Mr. Bob Weil and his team on landing the deal. There are very, very few on this planet who could take on a project like this and Mr. Weil (and co.) is more than qualified.
I think the editorial process will be one worthy of it’s own book.