Ortac Press

In the derelict shell of what was once his family home, a dying man surveys the wreckage of his former life and drinks himself senseless, haunted by the chain of events that led him there. Dark, complex, and visceral, Keshed is an unflinching character study exploring class, belonging, fatherhood, and conflicting ideals of modern masculinity. At heart, it's the story of a relationship struggling to cope with the impossible pressures of raising a child under late-stage capitalism; but it's also a love letter to the working-class North, from the grinding poverty of Thatcher's '80s to the present day.

Where have all the ravers gone? Following his debut, Flower Factory, Richard Foster presents a new batch of psychedelicized, autofictive fairy tales from the Netherlands. The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club introduces a diverse cast of voices - from addicts to grandmothers - who narrate eight stories dealing with the major social changes that country underwent during the mid-noughties. We learn of the upheavals brought on by the Euro and the influx of Polish workers alongside the slow disappearance of the British and Irish worker-raver tribes post-Schengen, all set against a backdrop of rising costs, political murders and foreign wars. We also learn of the shock of new party snacks, like asparagus sticks wrapped in ham. Like Flower Factory, The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club is set in the southern part of the Dutch Bollenstreek: an agro-industrial district that is always changing, but somehow manages to stay exactly the same.