Altered Biography: The Womb Years (First Edition)

In the tradition of non-traditional, genre-defying works of fiction by Arsenal writers such as Michael Turner and M.A.C. Farrant, Altered Biography is a warped, wry novel that fuses autobiography, memoir, and satire. It champions the story of Generation XY: a man and woman die and reunite as sperm and ovum in a SoHo loft-like womb, which marks only the beginning of this surreal and brutally funny tale, depicting an amoral millennial society of lost souls desperate for personal fulfillment and social status; the narrative, moving at a breakneck speed, careens recklessly from operating room to holding cell to fallopian tube.

Every death sets the stage for a new beginning; every last gasp begins a mad dash by millions of sperm trying to reach the proverbial ovum. In Altered Biography, Douglas Isaac perverts the mundane in an otherworldly, unconventional exploration of men, women, and the great abyss. It marks the introduction of a fresh and distinctive new literary voice.

As a lapsed mennonite, Douglas Isaac has shed many of the moral, heavy-duty concerns of others from that milieu, though he has retained the sense of humour of one of his infamous ancestors, Jakob Hoeppner, who purportedly took a bribe from Catherine the Great to lead the first 88 families from Danzig to the wasteland of the Lower Dneiper River, Russia, in 1788.

With the dubious distinction of being known in China as Mr. Chaos, a friend once told him: "I've never met anyone like you; one who could destroy so much in so short a time, then rebuild it in less."

He's a still photographer, filmmaker, and poet. In the sixties he was in Montreal, a cool, informed observer of an underground scene including Leonard Cohen, Claude Jutra, and Paul St. Jean. "It was a wild and wonderful time," Douglas recalls. "The Bistro was the hang-out. It was the place where you could spot all the up-and-comers, all the artistes."