In This Skull Hotel Where I Never Sleep

by Rob Doyle (Editor)

Fiction. Literary Nonfiction. Edited by Rob Doyle. The Irish writer Killian Turner disappeared under mysterious circumstances in West Berlin in 1985. He was thirty-seven years old. His disappearance, along with the fictions, aphorisms, sketches, and less easily-categorisable writings he left behind, have ensured Turner's lasting cult reputation. Not only writers, but visual artists, filmmakers, philosophers, and even electronic musicians have found inspiration in his singular body of work. IN THIS SKULL HOTEL WHERE I NEVER SLEEP--and its accompanying installation, which recreates Turner's last known place of residence--is intended as an introduction to the life and work of this disturbing, visionary artist. The volume contains key critical and biographical texts about Killian Turner, as well as Turner's last known work, An Investigation Into My Own Disappearance, which is widely considered to be his suicide note.

Additional contributors include Thomas Duddy, Sarah Flanagan, Dave Lordan, John Holten, and Alice Zeniter.

82 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2018

About the author

Rob Doyle’s first novel, Here Are the Young Men, is published by Bloomsbury, and was chosen as a book of the year by The Irish Times, Sunday Times, Sunday Business Post, and Independent. It was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Newcomer of the Year. His second book, This Is the Ritual, will be published in January 2016 (Bloomsbury / Lilliput). Rob’s fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in The Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, The Irish Times, Sunday Times, Sunday Business Post, Gorse, Dalkey Archive’s Best European Fiction 2016 and elsewhere.

Reviews

[Tama]

Rather disappointing. When you read Doyle’s profile of Killian Turner and are only met with ten large-font pages of a Turner work—which has been and gone in and of itself for over thirty five years. It has been and gone because Turner’s ‘Investigation into my Own Disappearance’ was a cryptic treasure hunt of various written fragments of nothing in particular. The marvel of it would’ve been the roller coaster in searching for Turner’s last words—though it is grim. The biographical essay, overviewing his works and this time in his life, by Rob Doyle has more value than that of Killian’s own work we taste here. Doyle’s is a piece powerful enough to give one chills. Also accompanying pieces by Alice Zeniter and Sarah Flanagan have a quaint air to them, which makes me want to read their own published works.