It’s here, the book we’ve all been waiting for, the epic conclusion to Austin author and illustrator Edward Carey’s Iremonger Trilogy, Lungdon. Carey has taken us through The Heap House, digging up secrets and whispering to objects; he’s opened our eyes to Foulsham as objects change to people and people change to objects; and now he’s taking us into the darkness, into Lungdon, what light will we find?
In Lungdon, the dirt town of Foulsham has been destroyed, its ashes still smoldering. Darkness lies heavily over the city, the sun has not come up for days, and inside the houses of people throughout the capital, ordinary objects have begun to move. Strange new people run through the darkened streets. There are rumours of a terrible contagion. From the richest mansion to the poorest slum people have disappeared. The police have been instructed to carry arms. And rats, there are rats everywhere. Someone has stolen a certain plug. Someone is lighting a certain box of matches. All will come tumbling down. The Iremongers are in London.
We’ve had great fun hosting Edward Carey here at BookPeople to celebrate the launch of both Heap House and Foulsham. This time, to herald the release of the third book, Carey is taking his show down the road for an Uncommon Evening at Uncommon Objects, the delightful and dizzying shop full of wonders on South Congress. There will be a presentation, book signing and wait for it… CAKE!! Join us at Uncommon Objects on Thursday, November 5th at 7:30PM. We’ll have all three books with us.
The Austin-American Statesman visited Uncommon Objects with Carey and store owner Steve Wiman for a sneak peak of this Thursday’s festivities and to discuss the role of objects in the Iremonger books:
Carey considers Uncommon Objects to be similar to one of his favorite places in London, the Foundling Museum, which details the history of the London Foundling Hospital, where babies were left on the doorstep by their mothers.
“The desperate mothers would often leave some small objects with their babies, maybe a thimble or something,” Carey says. And the museum’s exhibits feature these objects, which Carey says “are like a symbol, something the mother had, that in her misery she could leave with her child. And those objects, they speak volumes.”
More About Edward Carey:
One of our favorite local authors, Edward Carey has amassed quite the portfolio which includes plays for the National Theatre of Raomania, Vilnius Small State Theatre in Lithuania, and in England they’ve been performed at the Royal Opera House Studio; two other books outside of the Iremonger Trilogy called Observatory Mansions and Alva and Irva: the Twins Who Saved a City; Teaching creative writing and fairy tales on numerous occasions at the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa, and the Michener Center and the English Department at the University of Texas at Austin; He has even collaborated on a shadow puppet production of Macbeth in Malaysia. Through his life he has lived in England, France, Romania, Lithuania, Germany, Ireland, and Denmark.
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