The Fall of Ugarit

Michael Cope

Eliot believes he is God. It could be an old man's delusion, but then again he might be right. Living in a backpacker's in the seaside suburb of False Bay during a plague, he can perceive from a distance whatever anyone is doing.

Anyone, that is, except the new arrival to the neighbourhood, a woman who calls herself D.

Their contemporary story is interwoven with a tale of Ugarit, a Bronze Age port in Northern Canaan. It's around 1200 BCE, and on the idyllic slopes of nearby mount Zaphon life continues in the ancient ways. But things change: the droughts and the marauders are coming, and the reign of the old gods, El and Asherah, may soon be over.

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Vanity Press, 2025

Cope weaves a magical and transporting story that seems to see everything. This is pared down work, lucid and calm.

Karin Schimke

poet and editor

An enchanting love story: rich, numinous and splendidly far-reaching.

Finuala Dowling

poet and novelist

About the Author

Michael Cope was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1952. His father was the distinguished novelist Jack Cope, his mother the painter Lesley. He has worked, among other things, as a jeweller and a computer analyst. He lives in Cape Town where he works as an artist and jeweller. He teaches Goju Karate. He is married to writer Julia Martin, and has three children.

He has published three novels: Spiral of Fire (David Philip, 1986), Goldin: A Tale (iUniverse, 2005) and Sunderland (Jacana 2014, with Ken Barris); three volumes of poems: Scenes and Visions (Snailpress, 1990), GHAAP, Sonnets from the Northern Cape (Kwela Books and Snailpress, 2005) and The Craft (Left Field Press, 2017); and a memoir, Intricacy: A Meditation on Memory (Double Storey, 2005).

His book on jewellery, Concerning the Craft, is due out with Thin Ice Press in York, UK.