Permafrost
Permafrost
paperback
Published:
6 April, 2021
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Description
Winner of the Llibreter prize chosen by booksellers
Longlisted for 2022 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize
Permafrost’s no-bullshit lesbian
narrator is an uninhibited lover and a wickedly funny observer of modern life. Desperate to get out of Barcelona, she goes to
Brussels, ‘because a city whose symbol is a little boy pissing
was a city I knew I would like’; as an au pair in
Scotland, she develops a hatred of the colour green. And everywhere she goes,
she tries to break out of the roles set for her by family and society, chasing
escape wherever it can be found: love affairs, travel, thoughts of suicide.
Full of powerful, physical imagery, this prize-winning debut novel by acclaimed Catalan poet Eva Baltasar was a word-of-mouth hit in its own language. It is a breathtakingly forthright call for women’s freedom to embrace both pleasure and solitude, and speaks boldly of the body, of sex, and of the self.
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9781911508755 |
| ISBN10 | 191150875X |
| Item Weight | 127 g |
| Publisher / Reseller | And Other Stories |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
‘Read until you come or read until you cry. That's what happens when you encounter the frozen casing of Permafrost. Ice, not because it is cold, but because it cracks.’ Luna Miguel, Playground
‘A magma of sensations, doubts and aspirations. A trove of treasures. The piquancy of this novel, a surprise word-of-mouth hit in Spain, comes from the gap between the fantasies projected onto the narrator by the women around her––who see in her a free and contented woman––and the suffocating feeling constricting her. ’ Le Monde
‘Eva Baltasar debuts as a novelist with a high voltage book about the self, the body, sex and the family. One of the books of the year.’ La Vanguardia
‘The discovery of the year’ Time Out
‘Breathtaking, intense, poetic.’ ABC
‘A cold but fiery lucidity, admirable, in its approach to detail.’ El Mundo/El Cultural
‘Baltasar handles feelings as radioactive material, that is, as something that kills and illuminates us.’ Babelia/El País
‘Baltasar describes how you didn't think it could be done. It surpasses everything. One of the best books of the year’ La Vanguardia
‘Without doubt, one of the most memorable protagonists of contemporary Catalan narrative.’ El Periódico
‘Baltasar is very skilled. A Catalan Dorothy Parker. Ironic, implacable.’ La Repubblica
‘An investigation of the body as an instrument for measuring pain and desire. A besieged, solemn and majestically painful body, which ideally embraces all of humanity.’ La Stampa
‘A new voice. Courageous and audacious. Baltasar's style is astonishing.’ El País
‘Baltasar’s is a strong debut.’ Clarín
‘Intimate, beautiful, ironic and surprising.’ Nuvol.com
‘An electrifying writing and a personal, raw and lucid gaze. It convinces.’ Eva Piquer, Ara Llegim
‘The experience of reading Permafrost is utterly unforgettable.’ The New York Times
Candid and darkly funny.
* Financial Times *GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Already an acclaimed poet, with ten volumes of poetry to her name, Eva Baltasar’s debut novel Permafrost received the 2018 Premi Llibreter from Catalan booksellers and was shortlisted for France’s 2020 Prix Médicis for Best Foreign Book. Boulder‘s English translation was shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize . The author lives in a Catalonian village near the mountains. Julia Sanches translates from Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan. For And Other Stories she has translated from all three languages—from the Portuguese, Now and at the Hour of Our Death by Susana Moreira Marques, from the Catalan the forthcoming Permafrost by Eva Baltasar, and from the Spanish, Slash and Burn by Claudia Hernández, for which she won a PEN/Heim award. She has also translated works by Noemi Jaffe, Daniel Galera, and Geovani Martins, among others. She is a founding member of the Cedilla & Co. translators’ collective, and currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island.