Leo X Robertson

It's Ben's twenty-fourth birthday and his estranged dad-the great but egotistical film talent advisor, Oliver Baring-has invited him to celebrate at The Moth & Flame, a fancy restaurant south of London's Hyde Park. Ben, having once thought himself too practical and modest for a career in the arts, wrote a script for his dad to read-more for attention than aspiration. But thanks to the latest rumours about Oliver Baring, whether Ben can get Dad to read it is soon the least of their problems. In a world where everyone's got a story idea in them, and no one can keep it there, Ben wonders if words will be enough, or whether he'll resort to violence to make his mark on the world.

Jesus DeJesus is the lead singer of the Nazi Sympathisers, a punk band whose music excites its audiences into a frenzy that results in the complete annihilation of whatever city the band plays in. When Jesus is reunited with his high school crush at a gig in his home city of Scumburg, his disorder-centric way of life is soon thrown into question, making him wonder if there might be a better life in store for him. Jesus DeJesus' story is an exploration of the ever tempting urge towards total destruction.With Jesus of Scumburg, Leo X. Roberson offers a deeply unsettling anti-gospel, bad news for a world beyond hope of repair. Straddling bizarro and splatterpunk, this short, loud, and maniacal novel embodies (and disembodies) what those genres do best; Roberson scalds the mind's eye, taking us on a break-neck tour of a hypnagogic nightmare world so that we can see our own world more accurately once we wake, for, roiling amongst the viscera and sadistic nihilism in this book-in fact, inseparable from it-we can find disturbingly familiar theologies upon which so many of our institutions have been built." Carl Fuerst, author of The Falling Crystal Palace "We can't stop here, this is splatterpunk country. Jesus of Scumburg is a vile journey of nihilism told with an ironically tight and beautiful prose. This book asks you to draw a line and crosses it again and again. It is a bizarre, surreal ride that will leave your head spinning. As it came to a purulent head, I could only wish it was twice as long." Megan Stockton, author of quiet, pretty things

Set during an oil crisis-induced war in South America, Out Black Spot tells the story of Juan and his twin brother Matias as they fight to stay alive in the hopes of one day returning home. Juan is a poet, but since the death of his wife, he can't recapture the same creativity he used to pour into his work. He carries a dark secret that threatens to destroy his life: can he forgive himself and make it out alive, or will his inability to escape the past destroy him? Matias' wife Octavia is in a civilian holding in Paraguay's capital, Asuncion, trying to forge a new life with her son. When a malevolent spirit known as the Pombero comes to visit them, their brief period of calm is brought abruptly to an end, and she must make a difficult decision: offer the Pombero a live sacrifice, or let him take the twins instead. Out Black Spot considers the lengths we will go to in order to protect our loved ones, find new energy sources or even change the past.