Real Life is Elsewhere (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781805141938)

"For I saw in you the mongrel angel that saw in me the same"

Following a bereavement, Mark, a disillusioned middle-aged writer seeking something like enlightenment (or an epiphany, he's not sure), travels to Charleville in Northern France to visit the hometown of his hero, the poet Rimbaud. As he wanders Mark muses on the nature of obsession and how our heroes might be no more than projections of our deepest needs and fears. He also focuses on a famous line of Rimbaud's - "je est un autre". "I is another".

When he meets a local woman there is an instant connection and their conversation continues as they traverse the streets together over 24 hours. But something strange is happening. Immediately Anne knows his story and the events of his life. She knows his mind. Has he found his autre?

We follow them as Mark narrates in his head the book he will never write, with interjections from characters brought to life by his imagination ... and often against his will.

Real Life is Elsewhere is an entirely original, unique take on love, ageing and the process of writing.