From London, in 1829 two travelling players set out on their greatest journey and challenge: to conquer New York. Led by the urbane maestro and mentor, Edmond Parsloe, they exchange a Hogarthian world of gin, cock-fighting and debauchery for godliness and salted biscuit on an epic, grotesque, sea voyage to the New World. As protege stands John Gay - acrobat and Harlequin - in love with formality on stage and off. When they make landfall, Edmond and formality desert. Stranded penniless, Gay walks west, in delirium, haunted by the headhunter Rennah Wells: until they reach the Mississippi River and the shaman waboshiek, and all three of them come upon Death. An extravagant and panoramic tour de force, a ritual ballet of the damned, COYOTE enfolds historical veracity, myth, serenity and carnage. Its landscapes reeking of character and casualty, its vision pock-marked and shimmering, this is the novel as sheer state of mind: an exquiste, macabre and relentless tale of souls picked up and shaken till they split.
- ISBN10 0224038915
- ISBN13 9780224038911
- Publish Date 7 July 1994
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 10 August 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Vintage Publishing
- Imprint Jonathan Cape Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 240
- Language English