William S. Burroughs - Narkós

"A person becomes addicted to drugs because he has no other motivation. The drug wins by default, but I only tried it out of curiosity," said William Burroughs about his own addiction. The main character of his autobiographically inspired novel Narkós consumes almost every available substance, from marijuana to heroin, and in order to get access to the substance more easily, he also deals. As he tries to get off drugs again and again, he goes through the underground locations of post-war America, from run-down New York tenements to the gay bars of New Orleans to the underworld of Mexico City...
Burroughs' first novel, which he was only able to publish in 1953 with the help of Allen Ginsberg due to its subject matter and diction, has since become a cult book. This is a significant piece of his life's work, in which he faces himself with impressive honesty and authentically, with almost sociographic accuracy, reveals a self-righteous, exciting and terrifying world at the same time.
Our present edition is based on the 1977 edition of the complete text, restored by Oliver Harris, which, in addition to critical notes, has been supplemented with numerous appendices, including a eulogy by Allen Ginsberg and a chapter omitted from the original manuscript.

"Drug addiction means temporarily escaping from the aging, cautious, stuttering body."