Biotopia

Biotopia

an autobiography by Michael Charles Tobias
With an Afterword by Michael Pastore

Available NOW at Amazon.com

Published by Zorba Press
Paperback edition (September 2013)
Nonfiction; 260 pages; 6″ x 9″
$ 20
ISBN: 9780927379229

This Zorba Press edition of Michael Tobias’ novel, Biotopia, has never been published before, in any format.

A middle-aged ecologist battling depression discovers with each compulsive foray a renewed passion for the beauty of life. As he searches for the ideal place in which to say “Goodbye” he finds, rather, more and more reason to say “Hello!” Self-eulogies become instead paens to the joy of living. What began as a despairing plunge from a cliff in Bhutan, a deliberate shipwreck in the South Pacific, to various pursuits across most of the world, are scientifically and aesthetically dissected as the Author’s odyssey backfires wonderfully into an exalted epic diary.

With each near destruction, our character resurrects himself in eclectic essays where out of melancholy emerges addicting queries critical to this and every age; and a morbid obsession with the romance of death is transformed into a deep commitment on behalf of all those still alive.
Relentless metamorphoses re-envision the central character’s Being – his mission, his tactics, his hopes – as he becomes mesmerized by, and rallies to convey something of the sheer poetic splendor of the Creation…. Until Tobias’ great art-form provides a remarkable Manifesto; potent reasons for carrying on, in spite of the obvious existential adversities resulting from our own human presence.

Bold and ultimately cathartic, this dazzling roman à cléf heralds a psychoanalytic view of the human condition that brings a terrifying energy to bear on what it might mean to be mortal in the heart of paradise. Michael Charles Tobias’ 45th book is an unforgettable philosophical and artistic voyage extraordinaire.

Praise for Biotopia

I know no book that streams on you with so many rivulets, each flowing to enrich every realm of your being–mind, imagination, awareness of mortality and the eternal … You, Reader, may never encounter a more diverse, poly-dimensional, integrating sea of knowledge.
Some readers may be perplexed or impatient with the simultaneous firings of Tobias’ mind — but if they stay with the surging flow they will gain significant insights — awareness and recognition — on the immensity and richness of life.

— Thanasis Maskaleris, author of The Terrestrial Gospel of Nikos Kazantzakis