You should write a book - said the Founder
of the New School - the story of your life.
Memories fade can
be remade.
The Last Book is a novel of lost and reforged history, the
story of ordinary people in extraordinary times whose lives find new meaning
amid the cracked covers of unreliable old books.
The Last Book
(belying its title) is a standalone work, not part of a series. Although at
250k words / 1,060 print pages it's certainly a very long book.
Its
worldbuilding was inspired by a novella I wrote in 2005 -
The Goblins are Coming!
(published in July 2026) so I had a long time to think about what to put in it.
And I'd like to think my writing and story telling skills improved a little in
the 21 years of writing which separates the two works.
Unlike the
setting of the novel we're lucky to be living at a time which offers readers a
rich abundance of book titles from which to choose. Yet books without readers
are nothing. Every reader is precious. Thanks for reading this letter of
introduction to my new novel.
- Publication? - kindle August 12, 2027, paperback -
September 20, 2027
- Sampling? - first chapters of the book will be
downloadable here (or Amazon) as a free ebook - November 15, 2026
For updates - bookmark this page or follow the
author | |
|
May 1, 2026 - update on this
work in progress
- I began writing this story in 2001. I've had a long time to think about it.
I shared a short story version of it on email with sample readers in 3
continents in 2005. They all said the same. Make it longer. We'd love to know
more, the before and after.
In November 2023 I began rewriting it and
since then it's been my main writing preoccupation.
- sample chapters will be published here on goblinsearch.com when the
manuscript is finished with pre-orders on Amazon in Q4 2026
- length of the book (based on the current state of writing and edits) is
projected to be over 230,000 words (800 print pages)
- over 210K words have already been imported, linked and edited
into the Reedsy book assembly and layout editor
- alpha reader feedback of novel slices began in April 2024. There have been
6 sliced releases to date. The most recent was in February 2026, and hereafter
quarterly in the lead up to publication.
- Feedback I can share with you from my longe suffering alpha reader is -
Finish the book! I want to know what happens. Beta readers? those 5 of
you know who you are, you'll be getting copies of the book by email after I've
uploaded the pre-order text into Amazon kdp.
- the placeholder cover may change
I'm on
X and
Linkedin neither
of which existed when I began publishing online in 1996. So, although you'll see
some snippets of my writing thoughts in those other places, the first reveals of
significant new book content will be here on
GoblinSearch.com
thanks
for your interest
Zsolt
Kerekes
| |
|
| the Goblins are Coming!
was the working title of this novel for most of time I was writing it. They were
the first 4 words I wrote of the draft story in 2001. That remained an adequate
title for the short story version in 2005 (which was16K words) but based on
beta reader feedback of the 90% complete novel in early 20025 it was clear that
the book (in which many books feature as plot anchors) didn't match the epic
scale of the novel it has become (exceeding 200K words). I have left the
contemporaneous mentions to the old title in the test of the page below - but
have no doubt that the book - when it's published - will have the title - the
Last Book. |
update on this work in
progress
by the author
Zsolt Kerekes
- November 13, 2023
In 2005 I emailed the first complete
draft of a novella called the
Goblins are Coming! (which I had started writing 4 years before) to selected
beta readers in the UK, US and Australia.
They all said the same -
make it longer - we'd like to know what happens before, and what happens next.
I was busy in those days earning my living as the editor of the leading
publication in the solid state drive market - where my readers were at the
forefront of a new revolution in computer architecture. And in my spare time I
had made personal commitments to write some
books for
children.
In the past 22 years I've picked up and set aside this
novel (as it has now become) on several occasions - at major milestones in my
writing life - expanding scenes in the original novella and adding never before
shared new chapters.
When I embarked on my project to publish 7 books
at the beginning of 2023 - the Goblins are Coming! was #6 on my list. I've
lived with this story for a long time. I look forward to sharing it soon.
###
tentative notes from the book cover ###
Great deeds done for love of family do not list in scrolls of wars. Yet
how best stop the tides of war return and live at ease together? Memories
fade. Can be remade. Victors write true histories whose meanings time wipes
slippery. For those who can read them - words of Olden cast new warnings.
The goblins are coming, 1, 2, 3. Hide in the cellar. Hide in the tree. A novel
of books past and future - by Zsolt Kerekes | | |
|
| A serious book with "goblins"
in the title? How the heck can that be? -
an
explanation and a preview by the author |
|
 |
|
|
goblinsearch.com, concept, stories and text copyright ©
2000 to 2026 Zsolt Kerekes
|
