Fiction. NYLUND, THE SARCOGRAPHER is a baroque noir. Its eponymous protagonist is a loner who tries to comprehend everything from the outside, like a sarcophagus, and with analogously ornate results. The method by which the book was written, and by which Nylund experiences the world, is thus called sarcography. Sarcography is like negative capability on steroids; this ultra-susceptibility entangles Nylund in both a murder plot and a plot regarding his missing sister, Daisy. As the murder plot places Nylund in increasing danger, his sensuous memories become more present than the present itself.

"If Vladimir Nabokov wanted to seduce Nancy Drew, he'd read her NYLUND, THE SARCOGRAPHER one dark afternoon over teacups of whiskey. Welcome to fiction's new femme fatale, Joyelle McSweeney."—Kate Bernheimer

"You thought you knew your own language. This book hands it back to you on a platter and includes the instructional manual for its further use."—Michael Martone

Author City: NOTRE DAME, IN USA

Joyelle McSweeney is the author of five books, including THE COMMANDRINE AND OTHER POEMS (Fence Books, 2004), FLET: A NOVEL (Fence Books, 2007), NYLUND, THE SARCOPHAGER (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2007) and PERCUSSION GRENADE: POEMS & PLAYS (Fence Books, 2012). Her book THE RED BIRD (Fence Books, 2002) was chosen by Allen Grossman to inaugurate the Fence Modern Poets Series in 2001. McSweeney is a co- founder of Action Books and Action, Yes, a press and web-quarterly for international writing and hybrid forms, and a contributing editor of the culture blog montevidayo.com. She holds degrees from Harvard, Oxford, and the Iowa Writers Workshop, and is an associate professor in the creative writing program at the University of Notre Dame.

Reviews and Other Links
http://www.bookslut.com/fiction/2007_10_011820.php
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/01/rounding-up-and-rounding-off/
http://www.newpages.com/bookreviews/bookreview_archive_2008/2008_08/august2008_book_reviews.htm#nylund