Maté Jarai

London-based artist Louis Masai is best known for his paintings and murals, which gave him his foundations in the contemporary art world, but in recent years he has moved towards installations and 3D sculpture work...

In the contemporary novel, the mundane is proving addictive. The lengthy digressions and obsessive details of Karl Ove Knausgaard have hooked readers, while Brett Easton Ellis hailed Tao Lin as ‘the most interesting prose stylist of his generation’, while labelling his novel Taipei ‘boring’. But what strategies does the contemporary writer use to arouse interest in monotony? This thesis explores the question through a new novel Illuminato, whose protagonist Florián Hal struggles to find meaning, in what he feels is a pointless existence. The novel asks the reader to explore Florián‘s world experientially, and focus on the repetitiveness of his daily life. Through the novel, I ask how the contemporary mundane can prompt intrigue, immersion, and engagement from readers

Live Authentic Die Far Away, the third poetry collection from Maté Jarai, is a culmination of the ideas explored in If We Open Our Eyes the Floods Won't End so Let's Not Do That and Instrumentals. This collection is a love story told in verse, exploring what it means to search for authenticity within a significant other. This idea is examined through a chronology of poems, from the beginning of a relationship through to its end. Live Authentic Die Far Away is about the age-old existential search for meaning, for self-authenticity, and the dangerous pitfalls of trying to dictate ones own destiny.

Cephalopress is an independent publishing house formed of writers, operating out of Italy and the UK. Our aim is to help other writers who may be having difficulty in finding a home for their work based on the fact it might not be seen as ‘commercially viable’. Simply put, we want to publish good writing; real literature, the experimental and the brave, the forward-thinking in both form and content, the stuff mainstream publishing will rarely touch.

Walter White is dead. Breaking Bad is done. There is no more to that story, and after an epically satisfying final season, it was time for me to also move on. No television series has ever grabbed me like Breaking Bad, with its flawless list of elements from the writing, to the actors, the visual aesthetics and editing, the music and sound, all congealing to form a wonderful paste that sticks in your mouth and brain and stays there, becoming a part of you. Walter White’s story is one that will surely resonate with me for at least many years, if not always.

In a ruined world, based loosely on our own, the surface is haunted by terrifying and deadly masked soldiers, left behind from the wars of the past. Survivors of the ‘old world’ have fled to the underground. Food and water are scarce and it hasn’t rained in a year. Bandi and Markus are brothers, and two of the youngsters tasked with scavenging the surface for food. The soldiers have always left the young ones alone, but things are getting desperate. Times are changing. After tragedy strikes, Bandi and Markus are alone. With only an elusive black panther to guide them, they set out in search of the sea, a sea that only Markus can remember. But they’ve been told the sea no longer exists and the path towards it seems impossible. It’s a journey that will test their physical and spiritual selves, their beliefs and their brotherhood. As they venture on, they hope the panther that leads them is real, hope that at the end of it all they’ll find safety beside the waves. But that’s all they have—hope—and Death is everywhere.

Last Saturday, February 22nd, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, was arrested in the Mexican town of Mazatlán. He’s head of the Sinaloa Cartel, who are reportedly responsible for up to 30% of cross-border trafficking, to go along with a globe-covering trafficking network. Meanwhile the vigilantes, now part of ‘official’ security forces, have had a few victories themselves. All of this seems like great news for the Mexican Drug war. Could the tides be turning at last, it what has seemed like an endless battle for so long?