Award-winning author celebrating 20 year anniversary of satirical website, releases eighth satirical novel.
The third book in Ira Nayman’s trilogy addressing the issue of refugees, reframing them in alternate realities across the multiverse, is published as he celebrates the record-breaking anniversary of his website.
Elsewhen Press, an independent UK publisher specialising in Speculative Fiction, is committed to publishing outstanding books by incredible authors. One of those authors is award-winning Canadian satirist, Ira Nayman. In September, Ira’s website of political and social satire, Les Page aux Folles, (http://www.lespagesauxfolles.ca), will enjoy its record-breaking 20th anniversary. By then it will consist of 38 collections of prose articles and nine books of cartoons, over 3,700 pieces of writing and close to 2.5 million words. Surprisingly, as well as producing this wealth of material, Ira has also found the time to write eight novels in the Multiverse series, published by Elsewhen Press, exploring the possibilities of Alternate Realities. Of course they are not merely science fiction adventures, they are also replete with political satire and social commentary.
The latest in the series is The Ugly Truth. It is also the third novel in the Multiverse Refugees trilogy which addresses the exploits of refugees from the dying universe Earth Prime 4-6-4-0-8-9 dash Omega, who are being relocated to alternate Earths across the multiverse. In Ira’s typical style, the serious subject of refugees is combined with a quirky humour – in this case, the refugees are little blue tricksters with no hair and exaggeratedly round features who wear exquisite three piece suits and wreak comic havoc on a wide variety of dominant species.
Asked how he finds the time to create SF novels as well weekly updates to his satirical website, a spokesperson for Ira said, “He’s proflicic...prolifcic...proclif – he writes a lot.”
Peter Buck, Editorial Director of Elsewhen Press said, “Ira is like a force of nature. His energy and dynamism shines through his work, not just on his incredible website but also in his novels that we have been privileged to publish. The humour never lets up, if you miss a joke there’ll be another one along in a line or two. He is a master of puns, and loves smashing words together to make entertaining neologisms. Meanwhile, he is not only telling an engaging story but often making a worthwhile point too. The Multiverse Refugees trilogy started addressing the pressing issue of how some states cope with, and respond to refugees, when the first novel, Good Intentions, came out in 2019; the second book, Bad Actors, in 2021 developed the theme; now in 2022 the third book, The Ugly Truth, seems ever more pertinent.”
Ira explained the method behind his madness this way: “Good Intentions, the first book in the trilogy, followed the single story of the first alien emigré from a dying universe. Bad Actors, the second book in the trilogy, takes place two years later, when tens of thousands of aliens have moved to Earth Prime. To reflect the diversity of their experience, that novel was made up of six different storylines. The Ugly Truth, which takes place two years after that, when over a million aliens have been placed in a variety of different universes, is a completely fragmented novel to reflect the variety of their experiences (and the responses of native populations to them). For me, form often follows function.”
The Ugly Truth, was published by Elsewhen Press in eBook format on 17th June and will be out in paperback on the 4th July.