In "The Flame Alphabet, " the most maniacally gifted writer of our generation delivers a work of heartbreak and horror, a novel about how far we will go, and the sorrows we will endure, in order to protect our families.
A terrible epidemic has struck the country and the sound of children's speech has become lethal. Radio transmissions from strange sources indicate that people are going into hiding. All Sam and Claire need to do is look around the neighborhood: In the park, parents wither beneath the powerful screams of their children. At night, suburban side streets become routes of shameful escape for fathers trying to get outside the radius of affliction.
With Claire nearing collapse, it seems their only means of survival is to flee from their daughter, Esther, who laughs at her parents' sickness, unaware that in just a few years she, too, will be susceptible to the language toxicity. But Sam and Claire find it isn't so easy to leave the daughter they still love, even as they waste away from her malevolent speech. On the eve of their departure, Claire mysteriously disappears, and Sam, determined to find a cure for this new toxic language, presses on alone into a world beyond recognition.
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"The Flame Alphabet" invites the question: What is left of civilization when we lose the ability to communicate with those we love? Both morally engaged and wickedly entertaining, a gripping page-turner as strange as it is moving, this intellectual horror story ensures Ben Marcus's position in the first rank of American novelists.
Industry Reviews
"Crackles with vicious intelligence."--Entertainment Weekly
"A harrowing tale. . . . Sends chills down the spine."--The Seattle Times
"Fascinating. . . . A horror story that plays with the power of words."--The Plain Dealer
"Laden with metaphor. . . . It reads like a dream, complete with all the associative richness that comparison might suggest."--The New York Times Book Review
"An exciting page-turner." --The Philadelphia Inquirer
"A rich testament to Marcus' gifts" --Los Angeles Times
"A well-oiled heartbreak machine." --New York
"In the guise of a horror novel (albeit one written by a supremely intelligent literary novelist), Marcus has delivered a subtle meditation on the necessity as well as the drawbacks of human communication . . . in searing, sometimes hallucinatory prose." --Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Thrilling, boasting an erudition and an obsessiveness that smacks both of Jorge Luis Borges and of Darren Aronofsky."--The Boston Globe
"As I read The Flame Alphabet, late into the night, feverishly turning the pages, I felt myself, increasingly, in the presence of the classic." --Michael Chabon
"Marcus succeeds in creating a parallel universe that mirrors a side of human social life that might be more comfortably concealed." --The Columbus Dispatch
"An apocalyptic nightmare. Its vision is eerie, droll and heartbreaking, both lavishly written and haunting to behold. . . .[Marcus's] use of language could hardly be more vibrant."--Portland Press Herald "Some of the most thoughtful and moving writing I've ever read about family life." --Michael Jauchen, The Rumpus
"Disturbing and remarkable."--LA Review of Books
"This novel will cause many mouths to open. Dialogue will ensue. People will have something to say."--Cleveland Plain Dealer
"A mystery, a compulsive page-turner" --Salon
"The Flame Alphabet has the force of a nightmare, a testament to Marcus's skill." --NPR
"Ben Marcus is the rarest kind of writer: a necessary one."--Jonathan Safran Foer
"The Flame Alphabet is less about linguistics than the decay of relationships, the fracturing of familial loyalties, and the everyday heartbreak of human estrangement."--The Millions
"Ben Marcus is a genius, one of the most daring, funny, morally engaged and brilliant writers, someone whose work truly makes a difference in the world."--George Saunders
"A brutal, wonderful book, streaked with the sickly brown and gray hues of Philip K. Dick and David Cronenberg."--The Onion, A.V. Club
"A truly strange, original vision of a post-linguistic world." --Slant Magazine
"Freakishly sad and incredibly good."--Bookforum
"An authentic meditation on the sacred cruelty of communication that will leave his readers speechless."--San Francisco Chronicle
"You will not read too many books like this in your life. --The Financial Times
"For all its surreal touches, it packs an emotional wallop." --Wired
