Anhedonia, Sask: The Lost History A Photographic Novel
My writer friend, John Sifton, and I are working on a book project about a fictional, surreal small town somewhere in southwestern Saskatchewan called Anhedonia.
"Anhedonia", a term coined by a 19th century French psychologist, is apparently the incapacity to experience pleasure.
The book was submistted to a few publishers in April, 2013. In John's words:
"The novel is off-beat and occasionally melancholy, with twisted, sometimes surreal humour directed at a number of sacred prairie cows such as religion, politics and rural life. The photographs in the book are similarly intended to evoke a sense of a very particular place - the prairie surrounding Anhedonia, Saskatchewan. The images are austere and enigmatic, often melancholy and sometimes strangely humourous. A few photos depict places and people in the story. Mostly, the images interact with the story obliquely and metaphorically, as indeed the story itself interacts with reality only obliquely and metaphorically. The mood - the melancholy, strangeness and quirkiness - of the place is always evoked.