Melting Point fuses prose and poetry, realism and literary inventiveness, in dealing with the absurdity of humanity. Its fourteen stories embrace a dizzying variety of genres: hyperrealism, sci-fi, the Gothic and melodrama, all subtly re-invented.

The most striking thing about Magarian's collection is its range of interests, the multiplicity of the worlds evoked, and the extreme contrasts among its characters: a feted, reclusive writer; a seductive murderess with a fondness for Bourbon; a thief obsessed with a Toulouse-Lautrec print; a fruit and vegetable merchant who has a genius toddler; and a deep-sea diver who can only be free from clumsiness when she is submerged in water.

Stories and characters flow from these molten moments in a series of fictions that touch on ecstasy and excess.

About the Author
Baret Magarian was born in London, of Armenian origin. He was educated at Durham and London Universities and has published The Fabrications, Melting Point, Mirror and Silhouette and Chattering. He is a lecturer, pianist-composer, amateur painter, guitarist, writer and poet. He has travelled widely and has worked as nude model, translator, musician, interviewer, journalist, book representative, and in PR.

Reviews

Magarian has one of the best voices in contemporary fiction.

-- Simone Innocenti * Correire Della Sera *

Magarian's authentic poetic voice is strangely addictive, articulated with a shamelessly exotic accent.

* Review 31 *

Mr. Magarian writes with a cultured wit and seems quite capable of making just about anything funny.

* The Seattle Book Review *

The clue, as they say, lies in the title, for the stories in Melting Point are indeed much preoccupied with processes of disintegration. Philosophical, spiritual, formal, imaginative, ethical - the molecules positively fly apart, page after page.

-- Neil Hegarty * Dublin Review of Books *

Magarian has a unique voice that makes 'Melting Point' so utterly readable. Expected the unexpected

-- Emily Harrison * STORGY *

Melting Point braids twisted Kafkaesque parables with haunting tales that, like Hesse's Magic Theater, map the road to vision.

-- Michele Levy * World Literature Today *

Melting Point is that rarest of things; a collection that will return to the reader as often as the reader returns to it.

-- Desmond Bullen * Northern Soul *

Overall, this is an ambitious collection which is at once clever and heartfelt. Melting Point's stories take the reader on a journey through the extremities of human experience, taking in suffering, hedonism, genius, ignorance, inexplicable horror, and nirvanic insight. And it's a wild and exhilarating ride.

-- Becky Tipper * TSS Publishing *



Book Information
ISBN 9781784631970
Author Baret Magarian
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Salt Publishing
Publisher Salt Publishing
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 16mm