Monday, September 14, 2009

Radiant Days

A book for Shoemaker & Hoard from several years ago.

A good quote:

"Radiant Days is the darkly funny and deeply unsettling story of a young man who falls down a Central European rabbit hole. It made me squirm, and I loved it." -- Vestal McIntyre, author of You Are Not The One

And a (tiny) summary:
Moving from the tattered romanticism of Budapest, through the sparkling Dalmatian coast, and into the brutalized landscape of inland Croatia during the last days of the Balkan War, the novel takes a shocking turn of irreversible consequence.

Interesting how uncomfortable the writing was...well written, but uncomfortable human behavior. "Young" and "disturbing" are other words I would use to describe the tone of the book.

For the first round I used imagery of a European car (the one the main character travels in) on the cover. It seems liked a good metaphor for the journey taken. Also, rays, of course:



I guess I keep trying for that wine bottle to work:


My favorite:


After this round the publisher found an image he wanted me to try. It's almost difficult when you have such a great image to get out of the way and give it it's due:

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kim,
Your favorite does hit the tone perfectly. I would have been thrilled with it.

My favorite of yours are Human Oddities, and the two Carl Shuker books, The Method Actors and Lazy Boys.

Also, people have commented on how the bookend on Radiant Days is pretty perfect.

-Michael

p.s. Andrew Moore: http://www.andrewlmoore.com/

K. Glyder said...

Michael,

thanks for the very kind words. I'm lucky to be able to work on books as engaging as yours.

And thanks for the link to the photographer...where the real credit is due.

elizabeth avedon said...

I like it the first one best (giant rays and mysterious car). I would have bought it in the store just for the cover!