the brief and frightening reign of phil

read a great little book by george saunders on sunday which i wanted to recommend. here’s a quote from the author: the Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil began with a challenge from my friend, the illustrator Lane Smith, who suggested I write a story in which all the characters were abstract shapes. In the process, I found myself writing, “Once there was a country that was too small for all its inhabitants to fit inside at once.” Soon the story was going off in an unexpected direction, and was becoming that rare and not-so-sought-after thing, a kid’s story about genocide.  a fine book. reminded me (a bit) of the cyberiad by stansilaw lem. you can read an excerpt and see some of Ben Gibson’s illustrations at the official site.