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Children's Books

BANTOCK, Nick

Literature & Fiction

Viking Press

An illustrated novel chronicles a discontented man's search for the meaning of the inheritance left to him by his grandfather, an artist

The Forgetting Room

United States

HARPER/COLLINS

The Museum at Purgatory: A Wondrous Strange Tale from the Author of Griffin and Sabine

HarperCollins, Publishers

Readers are invited to delve into the journal of Armon Hurt, a sad, discontented man who discovers his inner fire. When his artist grandfather dies, leaving him the family home in Spain, Armon travels to Andalusia with the intention of selling the property. Once there, however, he finds a sealed cardboard case containing a small oil painting and a surreal booklet.
As he examines these mysterious artifacts, Armon realizes that he is holding both his grandfather's last communication to him and a puzzle. He begins to decipher the conundrum, and as each new answer leads to more questions, Armon finds himself painting furiously in his grandfather's old studio -- strangely compelled to create a picture that is somehow linked to his legacy.
Featuring paintings, drawings, collages, and paper foldouts, this is no ordinary novel. The Forgetting Room is a handmade treasure, a seamless blend of artistry and language, and a tantalizing read.

Forgetting Room

Ponti, Edoardo

Harpercollins

Nick Bantock first burst onto the literary scene in 1991 with his remarkable illustrated novel Griffin & Sabine--which was as much art as it was artifice. While chronicling the correspondence between two mysterious lovers, Bantock peppered his book with visual delights--macabre post cards, intricately designed stamps, exquisite envelopes that open to disclose hand-written letters. Sabine's Notebook and The Golden Mean soon followed to complete the trilogy. In many respects, The Museum at Purgatory resembles its predecessors, mixing metaphysics and art in a way meant to both puzzle and delight its readers. The narrator offers the basic premise early "My name is Non, and as Curator of the Museum here at Purgatory I am required by statute to facilitate, without judgment, the progress of all collectors assigned to these halls. It is my responsibility to act as their souls' guardian, as well as preserver of their accumulated treasures." Non then goes on to give a brief overview of the layout of Purgatory, a city that "takes a meditative, non-partisan view of reality" and where visitors are "faced with fundamental questions of self-worth" that must be resolved before they can move on. In other words, this stopping place between heaven and hell is one big analyst's couch. Non's introduction to Purgatory scans like the overly formal, academic language one finds on informational panels in natural history museums--no doubt Bantock's intention. Unfortunately, this can become wearing after a while, and it isn't until the second half of the book when Non tells his own story (as opposed to the histories of the various "collections" under his care) that the prose loosens up somewhat.But it's the illustrations that make Bantock's books special; it's unfortunate that several of them look as if they've escaped from a Dorling Kindersley guidebook--photographs of objects on stark backgrounds with a caption explaining their significance or use. Yet this museum contains some lovely examples of its author's art. As always, his stamps and postcards are exquisite--and how many cards are postmarked Nirvana or bear stamps from Inferno? This book may not equal the mystery or sheer beauty of the Griffin & Sabine trilogy, but Nick Bantock fans will still find plenty to intrigue and amuse. --Alix Wilber

The Museum at Purgatory : A Wondrous Strange Tale from the Author of Griffin and Sabine

HarperCollins Canada, Limited

Harper-perennial

From magic carpets to miniature mummies to a room simply containing "obscure objects," Curator Non overseas all that is housed in the Museum at Purgatory, and afterlife way station where artists and collectors comb over their lives, trying to discover whether they are headed for Heaven or Hell.As Non takes readers on a fascinating tour through each of the Museum's rooms -- along with its contents and their owners -- he picks up clues about his own forgotten life, piecing together a past that finally allows him to conclude his own story.

The Museum at Purgatory

An illustrated novel set in purgatory brings the reader on a part visual, part narrative journey through the museum of the netherworld, narrated by a mysterious character named Non

Arts & Photography

Graphic Design

Griffin: It's good to get in touch with you at last. Could I have one of your fish postcards? I think you were right -- the wine glass has more impact than the cup. --SabineBut Griffin had never met a woman named Sabine. How did she know him? How did she know his artwork? Who is she? Thus begins the strange and intriguing correspondence of Griffin and Sabine. And since each letter must be pulled from its own envelope, the reader has the delightful, forbidden sensation of reading someone else's mail. Griffin & Sabine is like no other illustrated novel: appealing to the poet and artist in everyone and sure to inspire a renaissance in the fine art of letter-writing, it tells an extraordinary story in an extraordinary way.

Griffin And Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence

Contemporary

Macmillan

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Books by BANTOCK, Nick