Innovative Publishing: “Devotion: A Rat Story”
As is evident with the deluxe 3D printed edition of Chang-rae Lee’s On Such a Full Sea and the illustrated graphic novel edition of Junot Diaz’s This Is How You Lose Her, Riverhead Books is devoted to publishing innovative designs and celebrating the printed book as an art object.
The newest edition to the innovative line-up is Devotion: A Rat Story by Maile Meloy. This new short story is packaged as a tiny palm-sized hardcover–just 3.3″ wide x 4.3″ high–presented through special displays at indie bookstores throughout the month of May in celebration of Indie Bookstore Month.
The small size demands an economy of words, but the message is no less powerful than one delivered with unlimited word-stock. This haunting tale of devotion–of a parent to a child, of one sibling to another, of a child to an alter ego, and of rats to no one–will take almost no time to read, but the demand it will place on your time through infested contemplative thought will continue for some time.
Devotion is described as a riveting feat of storytelling as well as a celebration of the magic of the book as object. A celebration of words that, once read, cannot be forgotten.
