Eustace

Author: Steven Harris
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Graphic Novels, Anime & Manga, Graphic Novels, Anime & Manga
Book Format: Hardcover

Poor Eustace is not very well. Convalescing in bed, a victim of the coughs and hiccups that rack his frail body, his world is confined to the four spare walls of his grand and gloomy room, in a tall house in London. His days are spent in wild imaginings, punctuated by the occasional visit from his mother, from prune-faced Mrs Perichief, who serves an unvarying menu of watery soup, and from a legion of cannibalistic Aunties, who fuss and smother poor Eustace with their bosoms and kisses. Relief comes from the odd behaviour and antics of his wicked uncle who is soon a regular fixture in Eustace's bedroom, emerging from under the bed in a cloud of pipe smoke, accompanied by a swelling cast of prostitutes, hoodlums, drunkards and assorted hangers-on - a raucous party which seems in no danger of stopping. Eustace finds himself transformed from invalid to the star of a glittering and decadent social scene, serving drinks, offering assistance and holding court from his enormous bed. That is, until his Uncle's past begins to catch up with him...A graphic novel vividly capturing a lonely and interior world, as well as the heady and tumultuous milieu of affluent London between the wars, Eustace is a blackly comic, surreal and exquisitely rendered work - and an assured debut.

About S. J. Harris

S J Harris is a cartoonist based somewhere in the Twentieth Century. His subject matter, language and dress sense are largely the result of too many old films as a child. Harris's first graphic novel, Eustace, was published by Jonathan Cape in March 2013. It is a tale of salvation by corruption and has been described as 'a clapped-out car pointed straight at a brick wall.' He is currently writing a second.