‘True to the fabulist tradition, a scenario which is introduced at the beginning of the novel as hyper-realistic is rapidly invaded by, and becomes a breeding ground for, the incredible. Following the death of his enigmatic Aunt Megan, the nameless protagonist has returned after a decade abroad in Mexico to his native Breconshire to pursue a hermetic existence pouring over the collection of books bequeathed to him by the deceased, in her isolated manor in the Black Mountains.

‘That Megan was a collaborator of C.G. Jung, having set up a cryptic trail of instructions as to the sequence in which the books in her collection should be read, and apparently having left a forest of weed growing in the garden shed, acquires a meta-fictional significance as the plot progresses.’

From Wales Arts Review, Harper Dafforn looks at Richard Gwyn’s The Blue Tent and considers the story as a work of magical fabulism. The essay touches on Carl Jung, W. G. Sebald, Chuck Palahniuk and Jorge Luis Borges’ classic short story, The Aleph.

Read more: Harper Dafforn’s review of The Blue Tent by Richard Gwyn.