Sam Taylor (born 1970) is a British author, translator and former pop culture correspondent for The Observer, a job he left in 2001.[1] His first book, The Republic of Trees, was published in 2005 and received critical acclaim.[2] His second novel, The Amnesiac, tells the story of James Purdew, a man obsessed with uncovering the events of three years of his life about which he remembers nothing.[2] Taylor lives in Texas with his family.
His 2007 book The Amnesiac includes the fictional main character James Purdew and a character named Tomas Ryal[4] a Czechphilosopher, playwright and poet, who is described as living from 1900 to 1973 and is famous for his controversial repudiation of the existence of memory, and also for the mysterious manner of his death. It is assumed that he was pupil of a famous Czech pedagogist, philosopher and inventor Jára da Cimrman.[5] Ryal was given an entry at the Encyclopedia Labyrinthus.[6]
Bibliography
The Republic of Trees (Faber, 2005)
The Amnesiac (Faber, 2007)
The Island at the End of the World (Faber, 2009)
The Ground is Burning - published as Samuel Black (Faber, 2011)[7]
Translations
Taylor also works as a translator, from French to English. These are some of the works he has translated:
^"One of the most compelling chapters is a fake biography for a fictional Czech philosopher called Tomas Ryal. (Taylor, somewhat cheekily, has "quoted" from Ryal in interview, and someone has, even more cheekily, given him a Wikipedia entry.)" Toby Lichtig Enter a beautifully perplexing world March 14, 2007 Telegraph (UK) [2]
