02121cam a2200277 4500 1660426495 TxAuBib 20241017120000.0 ||||||s2024||||||||||||||||||||||||und|u 9781681377674 1681377675 0030417799 Axis360 TxAuBib Penick, Douglas. The Oceans of Cruelty [Boundless]. New York Review of Books, 2024. One of the oldest books in the world, The Oceans of Cruelty is a sequence of twenty-five tales from India whose central theme is the dark power of storytelling. At the start, a young king falls into the hands of a wicked sorcerer, who orders him to find a vetala, or corpse spirit, to serve him; the young king must do as he is told, and soon enough he is also under the sway of the no less malevolent spirit. Like a bat, the spirit hangs from the branches of a tree, and the king is condemned to bear it on his back through a dark forest as it whispers a riddling story in his ear. These are tales of suicidal passion, clever deceit, patriarchal oppression, and narrow escapes from death, and as long as the king can resolve the problems they pose, his bondage continues; the vampiric creature goes on commanding his attention in the dark. Only when the king is out of answers will he at last be free, though when that comes to pass—well, that’s when the whole story takes a new turn. Douglas Penick’s re-creation of this ancient work brings out all its humor and horror and vitality, as well its unmistakable relevance in a world of stories gone viral. Format: Blio. FICTION / Adaptations & Pastiche; FICTION / Literary; FICTION / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology. General Adult. Importer Version: 2016-03-11.01 Import Date: 2024-10-17 20:00:03. Fiction Literary. Fiction fast Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology. Fiction fast Adaptations & Pastiche. https://sundown.boundless.baker-taylor.com/Title?itemId=0030417799 TXHSB