This volume, introduced by the author, brings together three novels
first published separately.
'The trilogy comprises Carnival (1985), The Infinite
Rehearsal (1987) and The Four Banks of the River of Space
(1990), novels linked by metaphors borrowed from theatre,
traditional carnival itself and literary mythology. The characters
make Odyssean voyages through time and space, witnessing and
re-enacting the calamitous history of mankind, sometimes assuming
sacrificial roles in an attempt to save modern civilisation from
self-destruction.' Independent on Sunday
'The Four Banks of the River of Space is a kind of quantum
Odyssey... in which the association of ideas is not logical
but... a 'magical imponderable dreaming'. The dreamer is Anselm,
another of Harris's alter egos, like Everyman Masters in Carnival
and Robin Redbreast Glass in The Infinite Rehearsal...
Together, they represent one of the most remarkable fictional
achievements in the modern canon.' Listener