Jeff VanderMeer (born J) is an American author, editor, and literary critic. 'An allegory about work life like no other.Nebula Award for Best Novel, Shirley Jackson Award, World Fantasy Award Corporate culture, capitalism/consumption, social hierarchies, and domination notwithstanding, only a vine flourishes here.'- Booklist 'This bizarre, fantastical vision will charm art comics and surrealist lit fans alike.'- Publishers Weekly An engrossing, unsettling, beautiful work.'-Patrick McHale, Over the Garden Wall 'Secret Life captures the dark pulsing horror of office life with a bizarre honesty found only in bad dreams and good nightmares. 'It’s impossible to look away.'-Alex Dueben, Orion Magazine 'The incendiary collision of two singular talents… Ellsworth adapts VanderMeer’s tale of a mysterious building where 'office culture' connotes secret languages and unspoken rituals, and a cherished desk plant with a tantalizing fragrance grows to menacing proportions.'- Poets and Writers Magazine 'This is a vision of office life gone very surreal, with warring tribes who develop their own language and mice who learn to speak English.'- New York Times As the narrative progresses you may begin to suspect that the world Ellsworth has brought to life with hypnotic visuals is not so secret after all in fact, it’s uncannily similar to our own. With deft insight, Secret Life observes the sinister individualism of bureaucratic settings in contrast with an unconcerned natural world. A woman plants a seed of insurgency that quickly permeates every corner of the building with its sweet, nostalgic perfume.

The despised denizens of the second floor develop their own tongue, incomprehensible to everyone else in The Building. When his manager borrows his pen for a presentation, a man is driven to unspeakable acts as he questions the role the pen has played in his workplace success. What emerges is a mind-bending narrative that defamiliarizes the mundanity of office work and makes the arcane rituals of The Building home. In Secret Life, Theo Ellsworth uses a deep-layered style to interpret Nebula award-winning author Jeff VanderMeer’s short story. Inside, the walls are infiltrated with vines, a mischief of mice learn to speak English, and something eerie happens once a month on the fifth floor. And at the centre is The Building, an office building wherein several factions vie for dominance. An uncanny and eye-opening journey into a mysterious building, adapted from a short story by Jeff VanderMeer

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