The Funeral Singer

Home / The Funeral Singer

Limited artists' book with silk book sleeve & curated arts and reading list

STORY

Haunting memories and buried desire are resurrected by the funeral song as war binds the lives of a widow, refugee, and partisan soldier fighting for the liberation of Greece. The Funeral Singer is a story with an Einstein-Rosen Bridge between 1922 Anatolia and 1944 Greece. The Funeral Singer is a story not only of historical events and the weight carried by survivors; it's also the personal narratives that still play out as you are a pawn living through history. It is a story of sexual desire, resistance, and female liberation. It's a story of a bird. A 2015 Kore Press Semifinalist.

SHIPPING/CUSTOMIZED BOX

Available for gifting. Each US order comes in a tailored Janus Point Press customized box which is "100% compostable or curbside recyclable and 100% FSC Certified". Box and tissue paper have an optional light scent of frankincense and myrrh for story experience. Handwritten note included. Inquire about multiple orders and corporate gifts.

CRAFT & PHYSICAL EXPERIENCE

The book measures approximately 4X6 inches with a black sturdy softcover, and silver foil stamping of a bird cage with a shadowed bird trapped behind its bars. Title and author name also foil stamped in silver on spine. Thirty-seven ash-gray pages of story nestled between translucent pearl paper. Epigraph, About The Author and Colophon pages. The book is tucked inside a book sleeve (a delicate small clutch) made from a lapis lazuli silk blend fabric by Narciso Rodriguez and pearl button, all sewn with doctorly love by Cyrus Amir Boquín. The details of the sleeve are part of the reading experience as is the optional-scented packaging of frankincense and myrrh. Touch and scent accompany the reader's sensory journey. A curated reading and arts list is included, introducing works (not affiliated with Janus Point Press) that provide historical and cultural background featured in The Funeral Singer. This includes related poetry, prose, music, artwork and film, with themes of: Smyrna, funeral singers, Rembetiko, female Greek resistance fighters during WWII and the subsequent civil war, death rituals of Greece. Each order is ceremoniously prepared. Printed local in Poughkeepsie New York. Cover & design by Seth Christian Martel.

Published September 13th, 2022, NYC.

ISBN 978-1-958077-00-9