The Hierophants by Oisín Fagan

Ireland/N. Ireland - €11

The Outside World - €13

The Penny Dreadful Magazine and Dreadful Press are proud to present The Hierophants by Oisín Fagan, winner of the 2016 Penny Dreadful Novella Prize.

The Hierophants centres around one disgraced, drunken, former academic and author’s tumbling descent into the murky Joycean underworld of modern Irish literary academia. Guided by the mysterious Professor Kaz, he seeks the answer to the most important question of his life and career, who are the Hierophants?

‘The Hierophants is a love letter, a suicide note and an unhinged, violently expurgated exegesis. It is brash, ruthless, relentlessly inventive and mesmerizingly wilful. It will haunt, daunt, pummel and tease you.’
Colin Barrett

‘Timely, yet original, with a scattering of elegant revelations. Surprisingly philosophical, for also being somewhat anti-philosophy. This is a terrifically strange, inventive and seductive novella, by a canny and courageous writer.’
Sara Baume

‘Consistently well-written, wonderfully imaginative, funny, and playful with form. A worthy inaugural winner of this important new prize on the literary scene.’
Paul McVeigh

‘Flagrant and delirious, like a Flann O’Brien armed to the teeth and bent on vengeance, The Hierophants explodes with violence and comic absurdity.’
Rob Doyle