Black Cradle

by U.V. Ray

It’s Birmingham, England in 1986 and Billy Zero has just walked out the hospital after trying to kill himself at the age of twenty-three. Amid ceaseless drinking in seedy nightclubs, backstreet bars, drug-fuelled parties and long, amphetamine charged nights punctured by his sense of demented loneliness, Billy Zero is sifting through the pieces of his broken life, compulsively searching for love and cheap thrills in an effort to assuage his feelings of alienation. With its frenetic and chopped-up narrative, ‘Black Cradle’ backtracks the grotesque personal life of Billy and his freakshow of bored and bewildered friends - fusing together the grim omens of his rootless childhood and the brutal events leading up to his suicide attempt.

174 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2016

About the author

u.v.ray is a writer from Birmingham, England. His fiction & poetry has been skirting the fringes of the literary scene for a period spanning 3 decades, appearing in dozens of magazines & anthologies around the world.

He dropped out of school at the age of 15 without any academic qualifications & spent the next 20 years drifting around bars & nightclubs across Britain & Europe, drinking & imbibing substances. His life during this time was mostly documented on beer mats, cigarette packets & scraps of paper. Although most of his notes during that period have been lost, these experiences still form the basis for much of his writing today & his work remains highly autobiographical.

Although mainstream success continues to evade him his short story collection We Are Glass (2012) & his novella Spiral Out (2013) from Murder Slim Press have both met with widespread reader acclaim. His work has drawn frequent comparisons to Albert Camus, Hubert Selby Jr & Charles Bukowski.

u.v.ray has just completed his second novella, The Migrant, which is due out from Murder Slim Press later in 2014.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m never let down by U.V. Ray’s books. I put off reading this one for a long time because it was the last book of his that I hadn’t read.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

A devastating tale of a man's journey to rock bottom. This story is not for those who believe in fairy tales or need happy endings. This is raw, real, and thought provoking prose. I find parts of myself in U.V. Ray's characters whether I want to admit it or not. His characters are flawed and searching for answers, like most of us are. Great read! Highly recommended!