From SA pal <a href="http://hellshaw.com/barry"></a><a href="http://hellshaw.com/barry" target="_blank">Barry Kavanagh</a> in Oslo

"Following the success of online sales of WHAT THE OSTRICH SEES IN THE SAND, Barry Kavanagh offers a more recent novel for sale in pdf format. This is THE TAO OF ODDS AND ENDS, completed in 2003.

"Were you dreaming you were a butterfly, or is a butterfly dreaming it is you?"

This novel takes three ancient Chinese Taoist stories from the Book of Zhuangzi (or Chuang Tzu) and re-tells them, setting them in the present-day West. They are all interconnected in an innovative way that is itself inspired by Zhuangzi, and framed by a fourth story based on concepts from the equally ancient Tao Te Ching.

The stories' styles vary from something like the stillness of Amos Oz to a kind of Saki-esque dinner party to near-fairytale to melancholy surrealism, and is an exploration of what Taoism is all about and how it might or might not apply to the modern world.

You can read an excerpt <a href="http://hellshaw.com/barry/toe.html" target="_blank">here</a>

<a href="http://hellshaw.com/barry/shop.html" target="_blank">Buy the full novel as a PDF</a> using Paypal. The PDF is emailed to you when payment is received. The price is 10 euro."