Y Rhawnbais (Jerry Hunter)

Wedi dod i'r casgliad mai dyma'r ffordd orau o gofnodi'r holl hanas. Fel hyn. Nid adrodd y stori fel stori, ond ei hadrodd am yn ôl, neu am i lawr, neu beth bynnag yw'r ymadrodd cywir. Trychu a dadorchuddio gan amlygu'r holl stori fesul haen. Mae hynny'n digwydd; mae'n ffordd eithaf cyffredin o gael at y gwirionedd, beth bynnag yw'r gwirionedd dan sylw. Ond dyna'r holl bwynt: bod y sylw(edd) dan sylw ac o dan sawl haen o ystyr, ac weithiau o dan haen o sbwriel a rwtsh y mae angen ei symud o'r ffordd cyn amlygu'r ystyr ac adrodd y stori.

Y Rhawnbais ("The Hair-shirt") is unlike any novel in Welsh that has ever been put together before - perhaps unlike any other novel in any langauge.

Its raw material is a mix of prose, imagery and found materials and put together through a combination of typing, handwriting and collage, with chance and randomness a deliberate element of the process of its creation.

The reader must interpret the material for themselves in order to unpick the story, which draws on a range of diffuse inspirations including the Mental Health crisis, human evolutionary biology and the First Branch of the Mabinogi. At turns dark and funny, serious and playful, powerful and impulsive, reading Y Rhawnbais is a unique experience which is never anything other than itself.

Jerry Hunter is one of the most prominent Welsh authors of the twenty-first century, and without a doubt among the most ambitious. Following the playful approach to language seen in Ebargofiant (2014) and An Atheist Christian Gunslinger (2026). Y Rhawnbais, which previously appeared as a series in O'r Pedwar Gwynt between 2017-2025, is proof yet again of his status as the greatest experimenter in our literature.

Paperback (A4 sized), 130pp.