cover image Preincarnate

Preincarnate

Shaun Micallef. Hardie Grant (IPG, dist.), $26.95 (192p) ISBN 978-1-74066-981-8

Douglas Adams fans will eat up the absurdist humor of Micallef’s quirky debut. An increase in human longevity has created an unusual problem—the demand for souls has outstripped supply. The repercussions of this disturbance to the cosmic order lead the unnamed narrator into a bizarre series of events. For a start, he finds himself “in a crypt beneath the Masonic Lodge Rosslyn St Clair (No. 606, Edinburgh), using a tyre iron to prise the lid off a sepulchre,” inside of which is a 350-year-old body with instructions for its revivification. The cadaver may be connected with the death in the present of Alexander Pruitt, whose soul is “Pure, 100 per cent Decent Human Being.” Colorful characters include the inspiration for Professor Moriarty, pioneer microbiologist Antony van Leeuwenhoek, and actor Tom Cruise. Readers who are tickled by the description of a character’s accent as resembling “a hillbilly version of Sean Connery doing an impression of Charo” will be rewarded. (Jan.)