{"product_id":"the-drowned-land-paul-willems","title":"The Drowned Land - Paul Willems","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Drowned Land by Paul Willems, translated by Edward Gauvin \/ small 96 page paperback, 4.5 x 7 inches, published in 2026 by Wakefield Press \/ ISBN 9781962728133\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e***\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe city of Aquelon is sheltered by moored lightsails, ensconced in a calm and misty land where the division between water and sky has dissipated. Its people are happy, living an ecstasy of subtle frissons, free of jealousy and any ties to affection. The Emperor of Aquelon has signed a final law repealing all past and future laws and has cast his crown upon the waters. It is the era of the ineffable, without distinction between life and death, and in which the lure of water leads even children to live and die as flowers, drowning themselves with smiles to drift down the estuary to a shoreless horizon of eternity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA traveler arrives to this idyllic paradise, speaking of Rome’s marble palaces and monuments—the land of Virgil with laws carved into stone. And Aquelon’s reign of dream begins to come apart under the destructive force of desire and the violence of nothingness as rituals are broken and nights are consumed by shrieks of horror.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePaul Willems spent three years working on The Drowned Land, transforming his memories of the Drowned Land of Saeftinghe into an oneiric Atlantis. Its ruins of reverie offer up a luminous pessimism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePaul Willems (1912–1997) published his first novel, Everything Here Is Real, in 1941. Three more novels and, toward the end of his life, two collections of short stories bracketed his career as a playwright.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wakefield Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51130563756257,"sku":"9781962728133","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/5215\/0960\/files\/Paul-Willems-Drowned-Land.jpg?v=1792696289","url":"https:\/\/50wattsbooks.com\/products\/the-drowned-land-paul-willems","provider":"50 Watts Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}