Petite Fleur - Softcover

Havilio, Iosi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1911508040 ISBN 13: 9781911508045

Publisher: And Other Stories, 2017

Synopsis

When his fireworks factory job ends explosively and his wife returns to work, Jose is surprised to realise he has a talent for keeping house: childcare, tidying, cleaning, cooking, gardening, he excels at it all. On Thursdays, he hangs out and drinks good wine with his jazz-loving neighbour. But when Jose's new talents take a sudden and gruesome turn, life, death, resurrection, and domesticity unexpectedly converge. In one single, hypnotic paragraph, Petite Fleur harnesses the unpredictability of Aira and the mysticism of Tolstoy in a discordant riff on suburban life.

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Review

Praise for Petite Fleur: 'As vertiginous, airtight and intense as a dream.' Yuri Herrera ---------- 'You'll read Petite Fleur in a single sitting, carried along by the lively rhythm and a wacky plot leavened by a blend of darkness and cruelty. We don't often come across this kind of novel, a drama played for laughs.' Le Figaro ---------- 'An absolute masterpiece.' Marie Claire (France) Praise for Iosi Havilio: 'Iosi Havilio's remarkable first novel brings news of an intriguing world' Martin Schifino, The Independent ---------- 'An ambiguous tale that verges on dark comedy ... With skill and subtlety, the novel hints that a whole society might labour under an illusion of liberty.' The Economist ---------- 'A haunting tale set in the aftermath of an apocalypse ... Iosi Havilio has caused a literary storm in Argentina' Amanda Hopkinson, The Independent ---------- 'Look out for the much-praised Iosi Havilio.' Boyd Tonkin, The Independent ---------- 'Deliberately unshowy, so that plot twists can unfold in the quietest ways.' Fatema Ahmed, Prospect ---------- 'With minimalist beauty and exquisite strangeness, Iosi Havilio offers a mesmerising addition to the literature of solitude.' Chloe Aridjis ---------- 'Havilio's passion lies with the powerless. An inexhaustible stream of eccentric, believable characters, the down-and-out, downtrodden marginal citizens of Buenos Aires, parades through his fiction.' Nick DiMartino, Shelf Awareness -------- --'This surreal novel is both dense enough and short enough to warrant re-readings and will especially appeal to fans of the TV series Twin Peaks.' Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Iosi Havilio (b. 1974 Buenos Aires) became a cult author in Argentina after his debut novel Open Door was highly praised by the outspoken and influential writer Rodolfo Fogwill and by influential Argentine critic, Beatriz Sarlo. Petite Fleur is his fourth novel. Lorna Scott Fox is a journalist, editor and translator who has lived all over the world. She has written for the London Review of Books, the TLS and the Washington Post, translated many books from French and Spanish, and edited Yuri Herrera's Signs Preceding the End of the World.

About this edition

• Publisher: And Other Stories
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1911508040
• ISBN 13: 9781911508045
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144