THE IMAGINATION THIEF, a novel by Rohan Quine
http://www.rohanquine.com
The Imagination Thief by Rohan Quine is about a web of secrets, triggered by the stealing and
copying of people’s imaginations and memories. It’s about the magic that can be
conjured up by images of people, in imagination or on film; the split between
beauty and happiness in the world; and the allure of various kinds of power. It
celebrates some of the most extreme possibilities of human imagination,
personality and language, exploring the darkest and brightest flavours of
beauty living in our minds.
Alone in
his skyscraper office one night, Jaymi undergoes a transformation that will
change his life: he acquires the power to see into others’ minds, and then to
control and project their thoughts.
Realising
the potential of this gift, he hypnotises a media mogul into agreeing to
broadcast an electrifying extravaganza of sound and vision emanating from
Jaymi, the like of which has never been witnessed before, that will captivate
millions. However, one of the mogul’s underlings has more subversive plans for
milking Jaymi’s talent, involving the theft of others’ imaginations and
intimate memories for commercial gain.
The
broadcasting of his visions plunges Jaymi and his best friend Alaia on a
journey into the underbelly of Asbury Park – a seaside town once full of life
but now half-forgotten. The town’s entire oceanfront is now almost a ghost
town: ruled by gangsters and drug dealers, headed by Lucan, it is populated by
lost souls and the beautiful who have fallen on hard times. Blackmailed into
thieving the most private and primal memories and experiences from these
people’s imaginations, Jaymi discovers a web of secrets and provocations
simmering beneath the surface of the town, about to explode.
When a
waxwork of Lucan’s decapitated head is anonymously planted in his own bar, fear
bubbles up, as everyone becomes a suspect in this unforgivable challenge to
Lucan’s dominance. Then when another provocative waxwork appears – a naked
full-body modelling of Lucan’s beautiful but tortured lover, Angel – Jaymi
knows he must use his own gift to discover the perpetrator before Lucan does.
Delving
into and celebrating the most beautiful and extreme possibilities of human
imagination, personality and love, The
Imagination Thief is literary fiction, with a touch of magical realism and a
dusting of horror. It explores the universal human predicaments of power,
beauty, happiness, hopelessness, good and evil.