Illyrian Fugue is a literary novel set long ago and far away, but it's about here and now. Set in Napoleonic Europe, 1805-1813, Illyrian Fugue is a tale told in fragments by an unreliable narrator tumbling through a dissociative episode. This novel is achingly beautiful, with 15 years spent weaving it together and researching source materials to capture the innocence of the times, before Darwin when the nature of things was still up for grabs. Themes include war, heroism, politics, madness, identity. Motifs include pirates, treasure, the bottomless pit, wolves, all kinds of love, olm-craft, and America.. Lyrical, poetic, gorgeous.