Tag Archives: loren ipsum

Dazzlingly Comic and Profoundly Serious

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Loren Ipsum is a roman à clef which gleefully scrapes its keys over the surface of the realist novel, turning it inside out and revelling in the carnage it creates. It forms an anti-biography which spills the tea on several lives, teases truth like a saucy flash of knickers, artfully nicks from several sources and spins puns to make sense unspun.

Dazzlingly comic and profoundly serious, this novel — like all great writing — is utterly futile and absolutely essential, both confounding and illuminating. Loren Ipsum writes, rewrites and unwrites the great Anglo-French novel, destroying then re-creating the world with each chapter.

– C.D. Rose, author of We Live Here Now, May 2025

Dodo Ink Acquires Debut Novel by Andrew Gallix

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“Dodo Ink Acquires Debut Novel by Andrew Gallix.” Dodo Ink Press Release, 7 July 2021:

Dodo Ink is delighted to announce a new publication.

Dodo Ink has acquired UK, Commonwealth and translation rights to Loren Ipsum, the debut novel by French author Andrew Gallix. Gallix founded the 3:AM Magazine website twenty years ago, which is still flourishing; it was the first to champion Tom McCarthy and a host of other emerging writers. He recently edited the anthology We’ll Never Have Paris (Repeater Books) and has reviewed for numerous publications including The Guardian, The Irish Times and The Times Literary Supplement.

Loren Ipsum settles in Paris to write a book about Adam Wandle, a reclusive author who has been hiding out on the fringes of the French capital for decades. Meanwhile, prominent figures of the literati are being kidnapped and “executed” by terrorists, who are convinced that bourgeois bohemians are the main obstacle to revolution today. Cryptic messages are attached to their victims. It transpires that these are all culled from Wandle’s works. Is the latter simply a source of inspiration for the terrorists or their éminence grise? What about the editrix, who is busy rewriting Wandle’s latest typescript by means of erasure? And what of Loren Ipsum herself? Through this satirical collision between the worlds of publishing and guerrilla warfare — set against the background of Paris and its multicultural banlieues — Andrew Gallix explores whether literature can effect radical change. Are books still the only true bombs, as the poet Mallarmé once claimed?

The book was bought on a partial manuscript. Publication is set for 2023.

Andrew Gallix said that he was thrilled with the deal: “Dodo Ink is a bold and innovative independent publisher — my novel couldn’t have found a more fitting home. I look forward to engaging with the whole team and am particularly excited to be edited by Sam Mills, whose work as a writer and publisher I have greatly admired for many years. It’s a dream come true.”

Editorial Director Thom Cuell said, “Andrew is one of the most passionate and insightful contemporary literary voices, and we are delighted to acquire this brilliantly satirical and intelligent novel, which perfectly matches our intention to publish daring and innovative fiction. We look forward to working with Andrew and to sharing Loren Ipsum with readers.”

Sam Mills, Managing Director, said, “We’ve very proud to be publishing Gallix’s debut novel, having been a fan of his essays and fiction for many years. His prose is cerebral, playful and beautifully crafted. In this sharply satirical and wonderfully surreal novel, he explores whether literature can still effect radical change.”

Dodo Ink is an indie press dedicated to publishing daring and difficult fiction. Set up by novelist Sam Mills, book reviewer Thom Cuell and marketing expert Alex Spears, it has published authors such as Monique Roffey, Neil Griffiths and Seraphina Madsen, as well as the recent Trauma anthology, which included essays by Emma-Jane Unsworth, David Lynch and Juliet Jacques.

For PR enquiries contact Sam Mills

sam@dodoink.com

Playful and Beautifully Crafted

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Hackett, Tamsin. “Dodo Ink Acquires ‘Playful and Beautifully Crafted’ Gallix debut.” The Bookseller, 8 June 2021:

Independent press Dodo Ink has acquired French author Andrew Gallix’s debut Loren Ipsum, a “daring, satirical novel which alternates between the worlds of publishing and guerrilla warfare”.

The publisher acquired UK, Commonwealth and translation rights directly from the author. The book was bought on partial manuscript and publication is set for 2023.

The synopsis reads: “Loren Ipsum settles in Paris to write a book about Adam Wandle, a reclusive author who has been hiding out on the fringes of the French capital for decades. Meanwhile, prominent figures of the literati are being kidnapped and ‘executed’ by terrorists, who are convinced that bourgeois bohemians are the main obstacle to revolution today. Cryptic messages are attached to their victims. It transpires that these are all culled from Wandle’s works. Is the latter simply a source of inspiration for the terrorists or their éminence grise? What about the editrix, who is busy rewriting Wandle’s latest typescript by means of erasure? And what of Loren Ipsum herself?”

Thom Cuell, editorial director, said: “Andrew is one of the most passionate and insightful contemporary literary voices, and we are delighted to acquire this brilliantly satirical and intelligent novel, which perfectly matches our intention to publish daring and innovative fiction. We look forward to working with Andrew and to sharing Loren Ipsum with readers.”

Gallix commented: “Dodo Ink is a bold and innovative independent publisher — my novel couldn’t have found a more fitting home. I look forward to engaging with the whole team and am particularly excited to be edited by Sam Mills, whose work as a writer and publisher I have greatly admired for many years. It’s a dream come true.”

Gallix is the founder of 3:AM Magazine. He edited the 2019 anthology We’ll Never Have Paris (Repeater Books) and has written reviews for the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Times Literary Supplement.

Her Quiddity for a Few Quid

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Another illustration provided by Christiana Spens for a short film based on the first chapter of my work-in-progress, Loren Ipsum.

“An old dear who had been strangled in broad daylight with her Hermès scarf near the Champs-Elysées. The motive of the crime remained a complete mystery prompting prominent columnists to brush up on their Gide, eager as they were to frame this putative acte gratuit with lashings of Lafcadio. There was no CCTV footage. No witnesses. None of the woman’s expensive jewellery had been stolen. The wads of banknotes she was wont to carry about in her handbag? All there too and all too there. Not only was their non-theft ostentatious, even downright provocative, but rumour had it that a couple of extra bundles had been bunged in for good measure — that is, presumably, as compensation for the murder. A tip of sorts. Her quiddity for a few quid, or the equivalent in euros. Stranger still, forensics had found breadcrumbs lodged, hither and thither, in the biddy’s extravagantly-lacquered bouffant. They believed the victim was beaten about the head with a baguette tradition bien cuite. Whether this had occurred before, after or, less plausibly, during the strangling, remained a moot point at this stage. One school of thought argued that the criminal had planned to kill their easy prey with this incredible — and indeed edible — weapon, before consuming it, thus cunningly disposing of exhibit number one. In the event, however, the crusty bread had proved insufficiently crusty, hence the scarf. The only real clue, and a rather cryptic one at that, was a note pinned to the corpse’s coat, which read NOTHING IS LOST in English and in all-caps Helvetica Neue. A death sentence.”

Drawing Him Hither

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Another illustration provided by Christiana Spens for a short film based on the first chapter of my work-in-progress, Loren Ipsum.

“Then he got up to refill her glass and, instinctively, she got up too and then they were kissing, deep and slow, their tongues going round and round and round like the ground bass number in the background, and he gently lifted up her summer frock as the melody soared over the looping bassline and she found herself reclining in a Le Corbusier-style chaise longue. ‘J’aime quand ça s’incarne,’ she whispered, drawing him hither with her long legs.”

Zanzibar’s Kitchen Corkboard

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Another illustration provided by Christiana Spens for a short film based on the first chapter of my work-in-progress, Loren Ipsum.

“She had four sisters and one brother. It was the latter, Athelstan, who had taken the picture that was proudly displayed on Zanzibar’s kitchen corkboard: Andromeda, Lunula, Phylloxera, and Loren, all stark naked, on a Cornish beach (a re-enactment of the famous 1914 shot of the Olivier sisters).”