Sein und Werden

If you're lucky, you might just be able to get hold of the Autumn issue of Sein und Werden, which was sent to us a while ago. Like swines, or rather like the overworked wretches that we are, we kept it conspicuously on a shelf for much too long, its literary appeal literally pulsing through the air of our office everyday to tousle the hair in the back of our heads while other, drearily mundane tasks kept us glued to the screen.



This issue presents 13 authors, and the (by now) customary mix of short and somewhat less short fiction and poetry, this time under the conceptual banner of the "Doppelgänger", or, for the less germanophone among us, the double, even the ghostly double (think Joseph Conrad's Secret Sharer). Experimentation is still a very prominent feature of this excellent issue. Look elsewhere for traditional or mainstream literature.
This is the playground of the literary outlaws.
Special mentions go to Juliet Cook, to the very disquieting "Praying for the Dead", by D. Harlan Wilson, and also to the Nouveau Roman-like short story by Marc Lowe, "The Third Person". Not including the cover art, this issue also contains three photographs that provide a perfect graphic "double" (pardon the pun) to the violently enigmatic and dark written contents. In short, unilaterally extend the Christmas indulgence period and get yourself a copy before it runs out. If its has run out, curse us for being late reviewers, it's all we deserve.