Nicholas Christopher

a novel

The bestiary

Tiger rag

Poems

The Creation of the Night Sky

The Bestiary

Film noir is more than a cinematic genre. It is an essential aspect of American culture. Along with the cowboy of the Wild West, the denizen of the film noir city is at the very center of our mythological iconography. Described as the style of an anxious victor, film noir began during the post-war period, a strange time of hope and optimism mixed with fear and even paranoia. The shadow of this rich and powerful cinematic style can now be seen in virtually every artistic medium. The spectacular success of recent neo-film noirs is only the tip of an iceberg. In the dead-on, nocturnal jazz of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, the chilled urban landscapes of Edward Hopper, and postwar literary fiction from Nelson Algren and William S. Burroughs to pulp masters like Horace McCoy, we find an unsettling recognition of the dark hollowness beneath the surface of the American Dream. Acclaimed novelist and poet Nicholas Christopher explores the cultural identity of film noir in a seamless, elegant, and enchanting work of literary prose. Examining virtually the entire catalogue of film noir, Christopher identifies the central motif as the urban labyrinth, a place infested with psychosis, anxiety, and existential dread in which the noir hero embarks on a dangerously illuminating quest. With acute sensitivity, he shows how technical devices such as lighting, voice over, and editing tempo are deployed to create the film noir world. Somewhere in the Night guides us through the architecture of this imaginary world, be it shot in New York or Los Angeles, relating its elements to the ancient cultural archetypes that prefigure it. Finally, Christopher builds an explanation of why film noir not only lives on but is currently enjoying a renaissance. Somewhere in the Night can be appreciated as a lucid introduction to a fundamental style of American culture, and also as a guide to film noir's heyday. Ultimately, though, as the work of a bold talent adeptly manipulating poetic cadence and metaphor, it is itself a superb aesthetic artifact.

Film Noir and the American City

Somewhere in the Night

"Orphan Nicolo Zen is all alone in 1700s Venice, save for his clarinet, enchanted by a mysterious magician to allow its first player to perform expertly. Soon Nicolo is a famous virtuoso, wealthy beyond his dreams, but he can't stop wondering if he earned the success -- or the girl he met in Venice is safe from the harm"--

The True Adventures of Nicolo Zen

On a snowy night in February--at the improbable corner in lower Manhattan where Waverly Place intersects itself--a photographer named Leo meets Veronica, the beautiful, enigmatic daughter of an illusionist who has been swallowed up in time. Veronica is looking for an appetite, a savior. And she is soon leading Leo into a dangerous labyrinth of delights that winds beneath and beyond a luminously transformed city of underground streams, dragonpoints, and mystically altered time. At the frozen apex of an extraordinary winter, Veronica has enticed Leo into a wonderful, terrible world...and away from his ordinary life forever.

Veronica

On a snowy night in February, at the improbable point in Lower Manhattan where Waverly Place intersects Waverly Place, a photographer named Leo meets Veronica for the first time. Starkly beautiful, mysterious, aloof, she leads him into a world where illusion blends seamlessly with reality—a luminously transformed city where powerful underground streams crisscross beneath the streets, a city of dragonpoints and Tibetan mysticism where real time is magically altered. Ten years have passed since Veronica’s father, the famous magician Albin White, disappeared while performing a dangerous feat of time travel before a packed theater audience. White’s disappearance was no accident: he was sabotaged by his apprentice Starwood, who interfered at a critical moment and sent him hurtling into the past, free to explore other eras but with no means of returning to the present. Until Veronica finds Leo…

Poems deal with the cyles of nature, the ocean, the stars, the mind, memories, travel, and mortality

In the Year of the Comet

In New York, a photographer meets a beautiful woman who is a magician and becomes involved in an operation to bring back her father from another reality. The father disappeared during a time-travel show, the result of a trick by an enemy magician. The lady magician sends the photographer back in time to look for him and during his search he witnesses famous historical events, all the time pursued by agents of the enemy magician. By the author of The Soloist.

A richly detailed historical novel from master storyteller Nicholas Christopher that School Library Journal calls " A] lush tale of music, magic, and intrigue" Nicol Zen is all alone in 1700s Venice, save for his clarinet, which a mysterious magician had enchanted, allowing its first player to perform expertly. Soon Nicol is a famous virtuoso, wealthy beyond his dreams, but he can't stop wondering if he earned the success himself--or what might happen if the spell were removed. And throughout it all, he continues to think about the girl he met in Venice, what she might be doing and if she's safe from harm. With a guest appearance by composer Vivaldi, and brimming with fascinating period details, this is a compelling coming-of-age story full of universal themes and a love story that will conjure memories of Romeo and Juliet, perfect for teens who love stories set in other times, and a magician who dresses all in white and can be in two places at once. . . .

The renowned poet--praised by John Ashbery, Charles Simic, James Merrill, and Anthony Hecht, among others--offers another collection of poems that explore urban life, travel, and the depths of the human experience. Reprint.

New and Selected Poems 1972-2004

Crossing the Equator

Toby Miller

Luc Sante

Barry Gifford

Lester Goran

Dahlia Schweitzer

Andrew Nette

Jonathan Aaron

Noel King

Matthew Asprey

Contrappasso Magazine

Mick Counihan

Morris Lurie

Suzanne Lummis

Chris Oakey

Robert Mezey

Floyd Salas

A special noir-themed issue of Contrappasso Magazine, an independent journal of international writing. This one's a grab bag of essays, interviews, and new and classic poetry focusing on noir in film and fiction. We cover everything from 'The Maltese Falcon' to 'The Strange Love of Martha Ivers', from Dashiell Hammett to Charles Willeford and Walter Mosley. Contains essays by Luc Sante, Lester Goran, Dahlia Schweitzer & Toby Miller, Morris Lurie, Andrew Nette, Mick Counihan, Noel King, and Matthew Asprey; poetry by Barry Gifford, Nicholas Christopher, Suzanne Lummis, Jonathan Aaron, Robert Mezey, Chris Oakey, and Floyd Salas; and interviews with Adrian Wootton, Matthew Moring, and Dennis McMillan.

International Writing

Contrappasso, Noir Issue

A tale that is at once a fantastical historical mystery, a haunting love story, and a glimpse into the uncanny. Xeno Atlas grows up in the Bronx, his Sicilian grandmother's stories of animal spirits his only escape from the legacy of his mother's early de

A Novel

During the 1930s and 1940s, young inventor Franklin Flyer travels the country and the globe, transforming the world with his revolutionary inventions and encountering a host of adventures along the way.

Franklin Flyer

Collects a novella and a selection of dramatic monologues, character sketches, and poems

Nicholas Christopher

Books

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