Jonathan Walker is a new kind of novelist. His new book Five Wounds is what he calls an illuminated novel reminding readers of monastic tomes while being very current.
Recent books like Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close have mashed up words and images to give a new reading experience that has led to these books being called hybrid novels. It’s a form so new that publisher Allen & Unwin have created a series of videos where Walker explains how the book was created and could be read. It’s a fascinating insight into book design as Walker talks about how he’s added ‘visual annotations’ in the margins and scribble into the text to give Five Wounds another level of dialogue and narrative.
