From Milton to Monsters: Andrew Pyper
From Milton to monsters ... Andrew Pyper's latest novel is a horror story inspired by John Milton's 17th century epic poem, Paradise Lost. On the surface, it seems like an odd fit -- a modern thriller inspired by a blank verse poem that's more than ten-thousand lines long. But, it works. Very well. The Demonologist begins in New York City, where...
From Milton to monsters ... Andrew Pyper's latest novel is a horror story inspired by John Milton's 17th century epic poem, Paradise Lost. On the surface, it seems like an odd fit -- a modern thriller inspired by a blank verse poem that's more than ten-thousand lines long. But, it works. Very well. The Demonologist begins in New York City, where a literature professor - an expert on Paradise Lost - has been invited on a professional junket. Someone - or something - wants him to make a mysterious trip to Venice.
He accepts the mysterious invitation - partly because his own life is a mess - his wife is about to leave him for another man, and he's kind of zoned out in a mid-life haze.
B ut the journey takes a terrifying turn when his daughter, who joins him on the trip, commits suicide in front of him.
From there, the professor's world shatters into a kaleidoscopic adventure of visitations by demons and shape-shifters; urgent chases all over the US and Northern Ontario; murders and mayhem.
Michael Enright talks to Andrew Pyper in Toronto.