The old man and the moon

Here we have six surrealistic tales from six places and from different periods, where prophesying and anticipation cut across each other and are mixed up together in a deliberately poetic writing style, which is dark at times but always gripping. They are eerie and seductive by turns, intimate but lyrical, as the style of the old storyteller pulls the reader in despite himself, into a journey that can be scary and from which he will not return unmarked

There is an anonymous visitor believing himself to be master and owner of Time, to whom the tale is told by a poor hermit coming from elsewhere and nowhere, an ancient sage faceless and ageless, emerging from the fantastic which is ignored by the man without imagination

Night after night this sage – whilst the gibbous moon is becoming full – tells the visitor (about whom he knows nothing) stories about humans becoming superhumans, tales where wisdom is twinned with surrealism gone wild, tales where pure fantasy steps gaily across the frontier of the real, whilst never leaving the realm of life itself.

Seated majestically in the shade of an apple-tree the old wiseman, ageless and faceless, insists on his visitor’s complete attention. “Don’t interrupt me” says he. “You’ll know everything in good time, for you have to give enough time to Time”.

And so, on the first evening of the five nights of full moon, the first tale begins ...