First published 2010
John Shade has completed his masterwork, a 999-line autobiographical poem reflecting on mortality and meaning. After the reclusive poet's sudden death, his neighbor Dr. Charles Kinbote seizes the manuscript and appoints himself its editor. Kinbote provides a fawning foreword and extensive commentary that reveals far more about the annotator than the poem itself. As Kinbote's notes spiral outward, they expose his obsessions, delusions, and possible connection to the mysterious assassination of a deposed king from the distant land of Zembla. The commentary becomes increasingly unhinged as Kinbote transforms Shade's personal meditation into evidence for his own grandiose fantasies. What emerges is a battle between two voices: the measured, contemplative poet and his megalomaniacal interpreter. The tension builds as readers must decide which narrator to trust and what really happened to John Shade.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, 20th-century, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: battle-of-wits, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Zembla
Period: 20th-century
8 pages · MP3 CD · Brilliance Audio