Once Removed - David Mann

"The stories comprising Once Removed are consistently excellent... I have not been this compelled by a collection of short fiction in a considerable time." - Dr Michael Titlestad The stories in Once Removed traverse the theatres, artist studios and archives that characterise the world of contemporary art and performance. But they also zero in on the homes, private lives, daily journeys and emotional interiorities of the various characters that inhabit them. While the stories in Once Removed draw from the undercurrents of the South African art world, their concerns and evocations are not limited to it.

"Once Removed is for readers who are familiar with the worlds of art and performance, and those for whom it is completely foreign. A reader doesn't need to be immersed in the world of artists, critics, exhibitors, gallerists or academics to access the collection, and to enjoy the imbalances, precarity, hilarity, and possibilities represented in it," explains Mann.

Part ironic realism, part experimental surrealism, these stories will matter differently, but equally significantly, to those inside and outside the world they evoke and inhabit.