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y separately published work icon Ex Libris single work   prose  
Issue Details: First known date: 2020... 2020 Ex Libris
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Against this backdrop, a loose gathering of subversives collects the scraps of texts left behind. Calling themselves free readers, they seek to reconstruct a library from fragments away from the watchful eye of the feared committee for public safety. But what begins as the story of four people drawn to a band of literary misfits becomes an epic quest for truth in a world of lies and a narrative conscious of its own fictions.

'Twelve of the chapters in this book are arranged at random, with each new copy shuffled anew, one of 479,001,600 possible variations. No two copies of Ex Libris are identical, and yet all tell the same story.' (Publication summary)
 

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Brighton, Brighton - Moorabbin area, Melbourne - Inner South, Melbourne, Victoria,: Owl Publishing , 2020 .
      image of person or book cover 564812492320854735.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Goodreads.
      Extent: 298p.
      Note/s:
      • Published August 3rd 2020
      ISBN: 9780648374626

Works about this Work

Free Reading Thuy On , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , October 2020;

— Review of Ex Libris Simon Groth , 2020 single work prose

'In each copy of Simon Groth’s Ex Libris, twelve chapters have been randomly arranged in a different order, meaning, as Ryan O’Neill writes in his introduction, ‘each copy of the novel is sui generisHow the story begins and ends remains the same for everyone – the first and last chapters of the book are immutable – but what happens in between changes. The number of different combinations available? Approximately 479,001,600. It’s a boggling possibility, one that will either intrigue the reader or act as a deterrent. Fittingly, the cover has the blocky letters of the title split into fragments. The task of putting haphazard chapter instalments into a cohesive story may seem intimidating. Groth’s advice is to approach his book like a jigsaw puzzle: the fixed outside chapters act as the framework, holding together the pieces within that each reader fills in a different manner. The end result is a completed picture.' (Introduction)

Free Reading Thuy On , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , October 2020;

— Review of Ex Libris Simon Groth , 2020 single work prose

'In each copy of Simon Groth’s Ex Libris, twelve chapters have been randomly arranged in a different order, meaning, as Ryan O’Neill writes in his introduction, ‘each copy of the novel is sui generisHow the story begins and ends remains the same for everyone – the first and last chapters of the book are immutable – but what happens in between changes. The number of different combinations available? Approximately 479,001,600. It’s a boggling possibility, one that will either intrigue the reader or act as a deterrent. Fittingly, the cover has the blocky letters of the title split into fragments. The task of putting haphazard chapter instalments into a cohesive story may seem intimidating. Groth’s advice is to approach his book like a jigsaw puzzle: the fixed outside chapters act as the framework, holding together the pieces within that each reader fills in a different manner. The end result is a completed picture.' (Introduction)

Last amended 12 Apr 2021 16:04:04
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