The Book of Jonah by Luke Kennard PRE-ORDER
Published 4th September 2025. Available for pre-order.
None of the Old Testament prophets was especially happy or confident in their calling, but Jonah was the only one to attempt to reject it outright, disobey direct instruction and literally run away. A late addition to the canon, taken by some to be a parody or satire of the major prophets, the Book of Jonah occupies a unique and awkward space in scripture, part dream, part joke, part provocation. Luke Kennard's Jonah is more of a business traveller than seer, determined to remain very much of the world, a mercenary for hire by non-governmental organizations, arts development agencies, conflicting institutional agendas. As long as it takes him as far away as possible from where he's been told to go. Convinced that he possesses nothing that might change the world for the better in even the most incremental ways, Jonah believes he is saving the world from himself. Whatever message has been handed down to him is distorted through homophonic translation, public relations, corporate surveillance and methods of divination, at the intersection of sense and nonsense, polemic and polyphonic daydream. In absconding, Jonah leaves behind three adopted daughters who have escaped from the Book of Job before their house could collapse on their heads. Little Dove, Cinnamon Flower and Cosmetics Box run the household, try to think of ways of making money and await his possible return. Jonah keeps obsessively busy, travelling further away from Nineveh with every assignment, unsure of his position in the world, hounded by God and tempted by a Devil who can communicate only in misheard proverbs. He meets writers, handlers, spies, fixers, artists and consultants but nobody who can give him clear answers to his questions or a sense of what his work might actually be beyond a five star capitalist purgatory in a series of exotic locations. What would it mean to be a prophet or even a false prophet in this milieu? In The Book of Jonah we are given the spectacle of a reluctant prophet undergoing increasingly absurd course corrections to arrive, finally, at the triumphant scene of his prophecy. Here Jonah deals with not so much a lack of meaning as an excess, plagued with doubts as to his place in divine or infernal revelation, bereft of any motivation other than escape, but nonetheless displeased by what he finds on his way "to the point that he might be fulfilling his obligations as a prophet after all. Decimated arts, cynicism, ignorance and apathy. What if, in doing everything he can to avoid his vocation, he's actually doing everything as intended?
None of the Old Testament prophets was especially happy or confident in their calling, but Jonah was the only one to attempt to reject it outright, disobey direct instruction and literally run away. A late addition to the canon, taken by some to be a parody or satire of the major prophets, the Book of Jonah occupies a unique and awkward space in scripture, part dream, part joke, part provocation. Luke Kennard's Jonah is more of a business traveller than seer, determined to remain very much of the world, a mercenary for hire by non-governmental organizations, arts development agencies, conflicting institutional agendas. As long as it takes him as far away as possible from where he's been told to go. Convinced that he possesses nothing that might change the world for the better in even the most incremental ways, Jonah believes he is saving the world from himself. Whatever message has been handed down to him is distorted through homophonic translation, public relations, corporate surveillance and methods of divination, at the intersection of sense and nonsense, polemic and polyphonic daydream. In absconding, Jonah leaves behind three adopted daughters who have escaped from the Book of Job before their house could collapse on their heads. Little Dove, Cinnamon Flower and Cosmetics Box run the household, try to think of ways of making money and await his possible return. Jonah keeps obsessively busy, travelling further away from Nineveh with every assignment, unsure of his position in the world, hounded by God and tempted by a Devil who can communicate only in misheard proverbs. He meets writers, handlers, spies, fixers, artists and consultants but nobody who can give him clear answers to his questions or a sense of what his work might actually be beyond a five star capitalist purgatory in a series of exotic locations. What would it mean to be a prophet or even a false prophet in this milieu? In The Book of Jonah we are given the spectacle of a reluctant prophet undergoing increasingly absurd course corrections to arrive, finally, at the triumphant scene of his prophecy. Here Jonah deals with not so much a lack of meaning as an excess, plagued with doubts as to his place in divine or infernal revelation, bereft of any motivation other than escape, but nonetheless displeased by what he finds on his way "to the point that he might be fulfilling his obligations as a prophet after all. Decimated arts, cynicism, ignorance and apathy. What if, in doing everything he can to avoid his vocation, he's actually doing everything as intended?
MEMBERS ENJOY 25% OFF ALL POETRY BOOKS
Join the Poetry Book Society for 25% off all books
Join the Poetry Book Society for 25% off all books