The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus

A short film based on The Flame Alphabet, a new novel by Ben Marcus. Video by Erin Cosgrove.

Become a fan of Ben on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ben.M.Marcus

In The Flame Alphabet, the most maniacally gifted writer of our generation delivers a work of heartbreak and horror, a novel about how far we will go, and the sorrows we will endure, in order to protect our families.

A terrible epidemic has struck the country and the sound of children's speech has become lethal. Radio transmissions from strange sources indicate that people are going into hiding. All Sam and Claire need to do is look around the neighborhood: In the park, parents wither beneath the powerful screams of their children. At night, suburban side streets become routes of shameful escape for fathers trying to get outside the radius of affliction.

With Claire nearing collapse, it seems their only means of survival is to flee from their daughter, Esther, who laughs at her parents' sickness, unaware that in just a few years she, too, will be susceptible to the language toxicity. But Sam and Claire find it isn't so easy to leave the daughter they still love, even as they waste away from her malevolent speech. On the eve of their departure, Claire mysteriously disappears, and Sam, determined to find a cure for this new toxic language, presses on alone into a world beyond recognition.

The Flame Alphabet invites the question: What is left of civilization when we lose the ability to communicate with those we love? Both morally engaged and wickedly entertaining, a gripping page-turner as strange as it is moving, this intellectual horror story ensures Ben Marcus's position in the first rank of American novelists.

http://www.randomhouse.com/book/20452...

Buy it:
Amazon http://amzn.to/OqaUN1
Barnes & Noble http://bit.ly/UuY1y5
IndieBound http://bit.ly/Q0pUy1
Other Retailers http://bit.ly/QmZQPy

• Category

  Entertainment

[Hubrizoid]

Perhaps it should have been the reading of YouTube comments and not the speech of children that transmits disease in the book.

[ludvikify]

what the fuck did i just watch

[ludvikify]

holy fucking shit.

[Scumfront]

The listeners on the wall next to LeBov are excellent!

[paulakaiser]

Really cool!!

[rocketman123100]

...... what is this?



[Mrzerogravity271]

w.t.f



[AmericanGrotesque]

It's important to think of this video as a trailer rather than a short film. It recreates various scenes from the novel, just as a movie trailer would show a handful of scenes from the movie. The purpose here is to intrigue you with little pieces, not present a stand alone narrative, though I did enjoy watching this before I had read the book.