Description

Book Synopsis

The human head remains in a state of consciousness for one and a half minutes after decapitation. In a heightened state of emotion, people speak at a rate of 160 words per minute. Inspired by this, Robert Olen Butler wrote Severance, sixty-two vignettes each exactly 240 words in length, that capture the flow of thoughts that go through a person's mind after their head has been severed. Here are the imagined ultimate words of famous and invented figures - Medusa, Sir Walter Raleigh, Anne Boleyn, Jayne Mansfield, and a chicken, beheaded for Sunday dinner.

Following on from this, Butler addressed the question of: what goes through the mind of a person while having sex? Turning his daring imagination to the intimate, Butler lays bare the most flagrant, personal thoughts and feelings of fifty, often surprising, couples in Intercourse.



Trade Review

Experimental writing in its purest form... This is a beautifully designed, reversible double offering; a curio in form as well as content. A must for fans of sex and death

-- Alan Bett * The Skinny *
light-flashing-before-the-eye distillations of life [...] sweet, but disturbing * Shortlist *

Severance / Intercourse

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    A Paperback / softback by Robert Olen Butler

    £12.34

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    RRP £12.99 – you save £0.65 (5%)

    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Fri 16 Oct 2026.

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      Book details

      Publisher Bedford Square Publishers
      Published 26 October 2016
      ISBN-13 9781843447597
      978-1843447597
      ISBN-10 1843447592
      Also in:
      Anthologies & Short Stories

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      The human head remains in a state of consciousness for one and a half minutes after decapitation. In a heightened state of emotion, people speak at a rate of 160 words per minute. Inspired by this, Robert Olen Butler wrote Severance, sixty-two vignettes each exactly 240 words in length, that capture the flow of thoughts that go through a person's mind after their head has been severed. Here are the imagined ultimate words of famous and invented figures - Medusa, Sir Walter Raleigh, Anne Boleyn, Jayne Mansfield, and a chicken, beheaded for Sunday dinner.

      Following on from this, Butler addressed the question of: what goes through the mind of a person while having sex? Turning his daring imagination to the intimate, Butler lays bare the most flagrant, personal thoughts and feelings of fifty, often surprising, couples in Intercourse.



      Trade Review

      Experimental writing in its purest form... This is a beautifully designed, reversible double offering; a curio in form as well as content. A must for fans of sex and death

      -- Alan Bett * The Skinny *
      light-flashing-before-the-eye distillations of life [...] sweet, but disturbing * Shortlist *

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