Do you find that your work as a translator influences your approach to writing original works?
A:
I can safely say I learned how to write from translating other people’s work. Translation has been a school to me. In a way, it’s like those painters you see reproducing great works at art galleries. They’re learning through reproduction. Translation is like that too. Translation means taking a text in one language and rewriting it in another. But literary translation is about taking an author’s text in one language and transferring it to another language in that author’s style. So it’s reproduction of content and form, to the extent that that’s possible. You learn a great deal from doing that. And it was through translation that I finally acquired those other competencies I mentioned before—planning, discipline and patience. It’s great training for a writer.
Congratulations to Anthony Doyle, whose dystopian sci fi novel was chosen for inclusion in the August Kirkus Reviewsmagazine!
To have a book chosen by Kirkus for their magazine means that they think the book is worth your precious reading time.
Could Anthony Doyle be the next George Orwell?
Have you bought your copy?
We have a few ways to get you that copy you want!
first option (and to get a FREE copy):
Sign-up for the newsletter to find out about upcoming free Kindle download days!
Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
second option (includes pre-order sale price & special collector’s item!):
During the month of August, order Hibernaculum at the pre-order price and receive a free copy of the Hibernaculum Spa brochure! A collectors item, signed by the author, that you won’t want to miss!
And, just as an FYI, I read this book when it was submitted to us, I read it to edit it, and I read it a few more times after that. I was captivated by the book every single time. If you, like me, loved1984, A Clockwork Orange, Brave New World, you will also love Hibernaculum. It’s just that good.
NM: In your notes about the book, you mention wanting initially to tell the story of Jonah and the Whale. How do you see that story relating to the plotline of Hibernaculum?
AD: The Jonah story has always held a particular fascination for me. Both the Christian and the Islamic versions are so rich in symbolism and psychological truths that I could go on writing about them and never get bored (though the reader probably would). Hibernaculum was originally intended as part of a triptych called Three Jonahs. The other installments are a recently-finished novel called Jestor, and a poetry chapbook called Jonah’s Map of the Whale (which is currently with Old Scratch Press). Each work explores the Jonah story from a different angle. In Hibernaculum, I imagined the process of hibernation and the hibernaculum dome itself as a “whale” that swallows the sleeper. Instead of 3 days, this descent into the underworld lasts 3 months or more. Jonah had plotted his course: he was going to board a ship at Joppa Port and sail away to Tarshish (Gibraltar). That was his plan, but it wasn’t the right one (he was supposed to go to the city of Nineveh). We have our plan, our course, collectively and individually, and it doesn’t seem to be the right one either, and sooner or later we’re going to be tipped out of our own boat and forced to reconsider. That’s what Hibernaculum is about: a society forced to reconsider its “course”.
Hibernaculum began life in Kindle Vella, but KV does not have the whole story. If you began reading it there, you’ll want to get your hands on the book, to see what happens at the end, when the dystopian becomes…. Orwellian.
Anthony Doyle is an amazing author, and while Hibernaculum is his first published novel, it will not be his last. I highly suggest you follow him to follow his career, especially if you like deep books that challenge our modern world. And, in his current post, he has an extra Hibernaculum story posted that you won’t want to miss!
As his publishers, we feel incredibly lucky that we are the ones to publish this book, and we’re looking forward to getting a chance to sit down with the print book and enjoy it all over again. The journey the book takes the reader on is…. unexpected, and when you think you’ve seen behind the curtain, there is more to know, and more secrets revealed. And, if you enjoy fiction that is also culturally relevant, this is the book for you. Like the best sci fi, it is a prescient book, and when you read it, and realize it was written before any hint of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you’ll think that Anthony is a seer, and it will shock you to realize exactly where tough climate choices could take our children someday. No, you will not be able to put Hibernaculum down! But don’t take my word for it. Listen to the experts:
“Thought-provoking SF delivered in an intriguingly panoramic form.” KIRKUS REVIEWS
“Doyle has hit on something rare: an original approach to climate fiction.” BOOKLIFE REVIEWS
“Gripping, revealing, and frightening.” MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW“The contrast between notes and experiences of those who navigate this world are exceptionally well done, and will lend to book club discussions and sci-fi reader delight. Libraries and readers seeking a futuristic exploration which examines sleepers of the world and the social and political truths and realities that underlie their motivations will find Hibernaculum replete with a growing horror of realization that awakens, at the end, into a nightmare of manipulation and truth. It will leave readers thinking long after the story’s final startling revelations.” DONOVAN’S BOOKSHELF
In an imploding world, time is money, time is trouble, and time is risk. For those who can neither afford or bear to exist 24/7, 365 days a year, time is also a solution.
In Anthony Doyle’s startling debut novel, you’ll step into a world where global voluntary hibernation facilities provide a way out, a chance to step off the status quo carousel. Hibernaculum takes you into the before, during, and after of this strange new process and posits the question: Do things really look better after a good, long sleep?
A compelling, unsettling glimpse into the world of tomorrow.
And see what the readers thought who read the abbreviated version on Kindle Vella:
Yes, we’ve been recommending Anthony’s book for some time now, but it’s finally here! And you know that in a few weeks you’re going to start shopping for Christmas presents or Holiday gifts, and why not give your friends and loved ones not just another “thing,” a tie, socks, etc., why not give them an entire week of great reading? People love and remember experiences more than things, and no one will be able to forget this book, or put it down.
DO YOU RUN A BOOKSTORE? ARE YOU A LIBRARIAN? DO YOU HAVE A PODCAST?
Anthony is a warm and engaging human, and he is free, willing, and able to Zoom with you and your guests to talk about his book, or climate change, or sci fi that predicts the future, or how to write and publish your debut novel, or any number of other topics.
Anthony Doyle, poet, and author of HIBERNACULUM, is one of the ten founding members of the Old Scratch Press Short Form and Poetry Collective. A person of many talents, he writes a great story. Check out his short story on Spillwords. If you enjoy Anthony’s work as much as we do, please give him a LIKE. The most LIKES will give him the coveted honor of #1 story of the month. Thank you.
OLD SCRATCH PRESS 