On the Heroism of Mortals

Allan Cameron was born in 1952 and grew up in Nigeria and Bangladesh. He has written two novels, The Golden Menagerie (Luath Press, 2004), partly based on Apuleius' The Golden Ass but also a polemic against it, and The Berlusconi Bonus, a political satire principally directed at Western consumerism, the policies of Bush and Blair, and Fukuyama's now disowned victory song of American capitalism. His non-fiction work, In Praise of the Garrulous, is an examination of the essentiality of language to human nature. The first of two collection of short stories, Can the Gods Cry?, was published in 2011, and this volume is its companion. He does not speak the truth to power, as power never listens or only listens to other power, but he does continue to write the truth about power, as he sees it, and to demonstrate his admiration for the powerless and their prodigious resilience.

On The Golden Menagerie: "It is consistently fascinating and readable, the work of a writer of high intelligence who has a stylish way with words." - Eric Hobsbawm On The Berlusconi Bonus: "A profound, intelligent novel that asks serious adult questions about what it means to be alive." - The Herald On In Praise of the Garrulous: "A deeply reflective, extraordinarily wide-ranging meditation on the nature of language, infused in its every phrase by a passionate humanism" - Terry Eagleton On Can the Gods Cry: "His dozen stories are bracingly different, weaving changes in tone and format, and in varieties of language, ranging from street-smart to the quasi-academic. - the reader's reward is often to hear the distant rumble of the Gods of rational discourse - crying out, inciting passion, and sometimes laughing as they go." - The Scotsman