Melting Point

Synopsis

Melting Point fuses prose and poetry, realism and literary inventiveness, in dealing with the absurdity of humanity. Its fourteen stories embrace a dizzying variety of genres: hyperrealism, sci-fi, the Gothic and melodrama, all subtly re-invented.

The most striking thing about Magarian’s collection is its range of interests, the multiplicity of the worlds evoked, and the extreme contrasts among its characters: a feted, reclusive writer; a seductive murderess with a fondness for Bourbon; a thief obsessed with a Toulouse-Lautrec print; a fruit and vegetable merchant who has a genius toddler; and a deep-sea diver who can only be free from clumsiness when she is submerged in water.

Stories and characters flow from these molten moments in a series of fictions that touch on ecstasy and excess.

Praise for this Book

‘The stories show stunning imaginative range.’ —Andrew Kidd

Reviews of this Book

‘Magarian has one of the best voices in contemporary fiction.’ —Simone Innocenti, Correire Della Sera

‘Magarian’s authentic poetic voice is strangely addictive, articulated with a shamelessly exotic accent.’ —Review 31

‘Mr. Magarian writes with a cultured wit and seems quite capable of making just about anything funny.’ —The Seattle Book Review

‘The clue, as they say, lies in the title, for the stories in Melting Point are indeed much preoccupied with processes of disintegration. Philosophical, spiritual, formal, imaginative, ethical – the molecules positively fly apart, page after page.’ —Neil Hegarty, Dublin Review of Books

‘Magarian has a unique voice that makes ‘Melting Point’ so utterly readable. Expected the unexpected’ —Emily Harrison, STORGY

‘Melting Point braids twisted Kafkaesque parables with haunting tales that, like Hesse’s Magic Theater, map the road to vision.’ —Michele Levy, World Literature Today

‘Melting Point is that rarest of things; a collection that will return to the reader as often as the reader returns to it.’ —Desmond Bullen, Northern Soul

‘Overall, this is an ambitious collection which is at once clever and heartfelt. Melting Point’s stories take the reader on a journey through the extremities of human experience, taking in suffering, hedonism, genius, ignorance, inexplicable horror, and nirvanic insight. And it’s a wild and exhilarating ride.’ —Becky Tipper, TSS Publishing

Praise for Previous Work

‘Magarian uses his fiction to pose some of the biggest, most complex questions about life. The themes which excite him are permanent and universal. How does one live with the passage of time, the transience of things? Can our desires ever be satisfied? How can one live a complete, meaningful life? Like all the best writers and thinkers, Magarian knows that you cannot paint an accurate portrait of the world without recognizing its essential, desperate absurdity.’ —Jonathan Coe

‘Never more prescient than in our post-fact world — in which reality TV show figures who never read books but watch endless hours of television hold the highest political offices in the land, The Fabrications' satire is spot on … a tour de force of the literary imagination … It's a wondrous novel both cleverly satirical of our spectacle-based society and philosophically profound, a rare accomplishment.’ —Lee Foust, The Florence News

‘★★★★★ Smart, witty, and honest’ —San Francisco Book Review

‘★★★★★ Delightfully absurd’ —Seattle Book Review

‘★★★★★ A resplendent tale’ —Kirkus Review