Swerve is a dreamscape detective novel caught up in a multiversal calamity. Swerve jostles and hums. Swerve might be Galileo's cousin, Margaret Cavendish’s niece, and Stephen Hawking’s step-child. Swerve is a once in a generation book that tells the story of three distinct detectives who move across the United States and beyond, uncovering pieces of a mercurial puzzle spanning space and time. As each section unfolds and is interpreted through the others, the detectives’ stories begin to collapse, rewrite, and ultimately, illuminate each other. Taking on a set of constraints (involving dice, reference authors, and geographic points) reminiscent of an OULIPO novel, Swerve invites readers to participate in the investigation alongside the characters, gathering clues, assembling narrative, and piecing together resonances. Come join the mystery—Swerve will not disappoint.
Advance Praise
Smart, strange, funny, intense, wild, stylish, unsettling, sexy, surprising and just, basically, so great, Swerve by Vincent James, McCormick Templeman and Rowland Saifi is a must read for all fans of wildly inventive and gorgeously written ludic enterprise. Part Tlooth, part A Void, just that smidge of Ubu Roi, and plenty noir, Mathews, Perec and Jarry would have had a blast with this. I know I did. I can’t recommend it highly enough. — Laird Hunt, author of In The House in the Dark of the Woods and Neverhome
Swerve is a semi-submerged, transdimensional, supra-observable novel-like structure, co-architected for your pleasure and contusions. Put on your octopus-shaped dress and snorkel jacket, and don't forget to refuse all clues. In Swerve, every fish is and is not a red herring. Come for the mermaids, stay for the $2.99 steak! — Joanna Ruocco, author of Dan and Another Governess/The Least Blacksmith: A Diptych