C.B. Murphy Releases END OF MEN

In a novel that is reminiscent of The Magus yet outrageously original, End of Men follows the journey of a successful Chicago couple through a series of life-altering experiences that culminate on a Mediterranean island in the company of a Warholian student of Aleister Crowley namEd Gordon and his Iranian-feminist femme fatale, Shiraz.

The narcissistic Gordon and the exotic Shiraz operate a struggling film school where eurotrash students produce factory art while working as grips and extras on Shiraz' underfunded masterpieces of neo-feminist surrealism.

When the self-styled enfants terribles premier their film at Kay's museum, Ben's past crashes through the pretense of the event. Caught in the nether zone of grief and confusion, he accepts an invitation to "vacation" at the island described as an artists' paradise. In Magus territory now, Ben and Kay become pawns in bizarre psychological games of erotic adventure with the promise of a renewed marriage through the reawakening of Ben's wild heart.

In this swirling circus of eccentricity, Ben's ability to distinguish what is real quickly erodes as he and Kay become performers in Gordon and Shiraz' final film, a reenactment of the immolation of Jacques de Molay, the last Knights Templar. As simmering violence threatens to become more than cinematic metaphor, Ben and Kay realize the complexity-and dangers-of the web in which they are entangled.

A writer, painter, and rogue anthropologist, C.B. Murphy's first novel, Cute Eats Cute, was published in 2011 by Zoographico Press. A past recipient of first prize for fiction at the Southampton College Writers Workshop, Murphy is currently at work on his third novel, Zombies in Space. View his award winning graphic novels and other works at http://www.cbmurphy.net.