So my question is, how much can you bench-press? Less importantly, how many people have you killed?

I think generalizing the “ungeneralizeable” gives like-minded readers a way to connect with some amazing authors and books that otherwise they may never hear about.īased on the photos of you I’ve seen, it looks like you work out every day with steel girders in an abandoned warehouse and have murdered many people with your bare hands. The problem was that there was no easy way to discover similar books, and most of my favorites from the genre I discovered completely by accident.

If you're someone who has found yourself on the outside of things your whole life, never really fitting in here or there, then the voices and stories in transgressive books really feel they can be a mouthpiece for individuals you relate to. I've always been passionate about transgressive fiction-long before I knew the term existed or, indeed, what it even was. Why so passionate about this type of writing? More importantly, please hurry up and make it all the rage again so we can both sell more books.

You’re one of the biggest proponents of transgressive fiction, and have worked tirelessly to make the term/genre all the rage again. Because they are rebelling against the basic norms of society, protagonists of transgressive fiction may seem mentally ill, anti-social or nihilistic. For those unfamiliar with what exactly transgressive fiction is, Wikipedia hits the nail on the head with this definition: “A genre of literature that focusses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society and who break free of those confines in unusual or illicit ways. I loved it when I first read it, and thought it so aptly applied to my books-and to transgressive fiction in general. The “for all and none” quote is from Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche. You describe yourself as a “transgressive novelist for all and none.” I love that! What the hell does it mean? Thus, to experience the full effect of the interview, it’s absolutely essential you read R.D.’s responses in a thick Newcastle accent while sounding a bit suspicious. writes transgressive fiction-in the same vein as authors like Chuck Palahniuk ( Fight Club), Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho), Irvine Welsh ( Trainspotting) and, last and certainly least, me.īelow is my interview with R.D., who’s from England but who may soon be moving to Cyprus in order to dodge British authorities.

If his name seems familiar to you, it’s likely because he’s written two very cool novels within the past decade (one of which- The Elephant Tree-was among the titles featured in the big book giveaway I hosted a few months ago). Every once in a while, a fellow author will even respond to my questions. Few things bring me more pleasure than asking fellow authors questions about their life and their writing process.

The Elephant Tree by R.D. Ronald