Solarium, by Braden Matthew
Forthcoming March 1, 2026!
“Solarium is an artfully constructed,contemplative, deeply human novel in which Matthew brilliantly explores the multidimensional points in which literature, philosophy, technology, cinema, entertainment, religion,trauma, family, race. divinity and mortality intersect in such a way that the reader is quickly reminded that the novel still serves as the long standing criterion by which we measure and explore the fundamental discourse of what it means to be human.” PHILLIP FREEDENBERG, author of America and the Cult of the Cactus Boots: A Diagnostic
“A joyous romp through literature.” CAMILLA GRUDOVA, author of The Doll’s Alphabet and Children of Paradise
Bib is a mute, reclusive philosophy student with a compulsive addiction to reading. Hiding from society in an underground apartment, Bib scribbles his bizarre dreams that happen to coincide with the sudden disappearance of those around him. Gradually, Bib is forced out of his underworld to investigate an absent civilization, one where only the poor and social outcasts run free, where the city has reverted to an anarchic state of nature. Flipping between Bib’s scribbled “dream diaries” and the novelized collapse of the modern world as told in footnotes by The Society of Bibliophiles, Solarium creates an atmosphere that seeks to bend the mind in the search for the body.The world of Solarium depicts a degenerative society, with themes of racial guilt, sexuality, and trauma. As Bib seeks to understand his condition, he looks to the past.While on the surface, Solarium depicts a story about a passive and manic academic, lying beneath is a passionate confession of shame, guilt, and desire.
Braden Matthew is a Canadian psycho-therapist and novelist who lives in Edinburgh, Scotland with his partner and children. He holds a BA in ReligiousStudies, a MA in Philosophy, and a Masters in Counselling and Psychotherapy. He is the author of two books, Solarium, his debut novel, and The Devil’s Workshop, a forthcoming novella and collection of short stories. A Canadian-born writer living inScotland, the fiction he writes is often set within cold and wet climates, adding a bleak, melancholic atmosphere to his stories.