Kilworthy Tanner

Jean Marc Ah-Sen

A madcap, witty account of an aspiring author’s relationship with an infamous and provocative mentor.

Fresh-faced Jonno is looking to make a splash in the literary scene when he encounters celebrated novelist Kilworthy Tanner at a party. Having sold first editions of her works to Toronto’s book dealers, he’s immediately star-struck and more than a little surprised when she takes an interest in him. Could this be the break he’s after? It’s not long before the controlling and aloof Kilworthy is casually letting young Jonno move in with her, and they begin co-authoring sensational and unruly fictions together. But who’ll get the credit for these collaborations, and why does he constantly feel like he must fend off rival authors? Fuelled by outrageousness and hell-bent on literary self-annihilation, Kilworthy Tanner is Jonno’s tell-all ‘pseudobiography’ of their entanglement, and he doesn’t withhold any details of the sexual degeneracy, prodigious drug use, and vendettas of the era.

Esplanade Books
Fiction 2024

Reviews

“Being in a relationship should be like biting into a cream tart—or so says Jonno, the young narrator of this intoxicating ‘biography’ of a CanLit superstar. Unfortunately for Jonno, relationships are more like a pie to the face. Exploring the blood sport of love and literature, Kilworthy Tanner totally kills. A cheeky, wow-inspiring novel by a master stylist.” -Neil Smith, author of Boo and Jones

Jean Marc Ah-Sen is the author of Grand Menteur and In the Beggarly Style of Imitation. His writing has appeared in Literary Hub, Catapult, The Comics Journal, Maclean's, Hazlitt, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, and The Toronto Star. The National Post has hailed his writing as "an inventive escape from the conventional."
Pre-order now
Available May 2024
Trade paperback
280 pp 7.5" x 5"
ISBN13: 9781550656633

CDN $22.95

Ebook
ISBN13: 9781550656657

CDN $13.99