Novel
Author: Michael Nath || Publication Date: June 16, 2026
Michael’s website || Interview with L’Esprit about Talbot || Talbot Trailer
We first met Michael Nath through, of all places, the slush pile. His compendious essay covering everything from phenomenology to pedagogy, “Modernism and Creative Writing” came rampaging through our inbox alongside an excerpt of his latest novel project, Talbot & The Fall, upending our nascent status quo and inspiring a fresh range of pieces to consider. As L’Esprit has grown, we’ve tried to inhabit and champion a spirit of Modernism similar to the one which called to Michael: effervescent, peripatetic, insouciant. Above all, precise and fearless, exuberant in its play with style and language while grounded in erudite explorations of its art. These qualities are found just as fully in Michael’s creative work as in his critical eye, nowhere more present than in Talbot.
After over a year of thinking about ways to help this book to publication, we came to the realization that we might simply do it ourselves. Indirect Books comes into the world with more than Talbot in mind, as we expect, and hope, that the press will develop as L’Esprit has, growing into a robust independent publisher that helps to knock down the stagnate walls of literary convention and carve out publication space for fearless writing. But Talbot is surely the Helen to our Greek fleet, a pairing of project and publisher that transcends serendipitous. We could not dream up a better manuscript to serve as our debut original book, nor a better author.
We’re thus incredibly excited to present this new extract of Michael’s book, and to formally announce our publication of Talbot & The Fall: A Comedy (With Support). The novel is a spirited consideration of art, death, and ordinary life, interweaving historical visions and a rather cheeky chorus alongside the dual narratives of John Talbot and his daughter, Charlie.
Select questions animate Talbot: Can art help overcome our fear of death? Can we make art without knowing death? In exploring them, the novel unites the threads of Michael’s encyclopedic reading, creative energy, and love of a particular band into a postmodern, post-punk romp through a week in the life of its central players.
Waiting for the results of a colonoscopy, Talbot, a Welshman and a Tube driver, has seven days to think about his life, even do something significant. Though he never went to university, he’s received an education of a kind from the words and music of The Fall and their lead singer, ‘The Captain’ Mark E. Smith. Charlie meanwhile is entangled with her university writing project, waiting for inspiration, in whatever form, to strike.
From this spins out an entire world, moving between London, Wales, and Norfolk. As with Michael’s earlier novels, Talbot embraces a expansive range of characters, mining daily life and all its complications through a singular voice and vision. Talbot & The Fall is a work of unrelenting energy and ingenuity, palpated not only by the spirits who observe and describe John’s momentous week, but also by those most ancient dramas: family, death, music, and art. We’re honored to be able to publish the latest novel from Michael Nath, and to inaugurate our own publishing endeavor in the spirit of those muses he so brilliantly brings to life.
Indirect Books’ first full-length project, Talbot & The Fall will be Michael Nath’s fourth novel.
Read more about Michael’s previous books:
The Treatment || Guardian Review
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