Head in Flames is a collage novel composed of chips of sensation, observation, memory, & quotation shaped into a series of narraticules told by three alternating voices, each inhabiting a different font & aesthetic/political/existential space.

The first belongs to Vincent van Gogh on the day he shot himself in Auvers-sur-Oise in July 1890. The second to Theo van Gogh (Vincent's brother's great grandson) on the day he was assassinated in Amsterdam in November 2004.  The third to Mohammed Bouyeri, Theo's murderer, outraged by the filmmaker's collaboration with controversial politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali on a 10-minute experimental short critiquing Muslim subjugation & abuse of women.

The aggregate: an exploration of art's purpose, religion's increasingly dominant role as engine of politics & passion, the complexities of foreignness & assimilation, & the limits of tolerance.

"Striking, shocking....In the world of contemporary fiction, Lance Olsen is a rock star."
—Brooklyn Rail

"The great power of the book . . . comes from its unflinching confrontation with painful salients in the conflict of civilizations commonly called the clash of Islam and the West."
—Flashpoint

"A fine collage novel."
—Experimental Fiction / Poetry