The Gist

Subterranean Press, Burton MI, 2013. First edition. Condition: Fine in near fine dust jacket. Very slight edge nicks at corners. Deluxe hardcover edition.

"The conscious extraction of meaning from a procession of words is not, after all, the only way of interacting with a text, or with anything else in the world". A dealer in old books, lost books - books no-one knows even exist. A man who works for him, prizing meaning from places where it is deeply hidden. A book, at first unintelligible, but which begins to reveal its secrets in ways the translator could never have guessed.

This is the story of The Gist, but that's only the beginning of the journey. Michael Marshall Smith's original novelette was then translated into French by Benoît Domis, before being rendered back into English by Nicholas Royle, who had no access to the original text or author during the process. All three versions are presented in this edition. The idea is to discover what happened during the process, how much the story changed while passing through two other minds and another language. To see if the Gist survived.