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Wretchedness Andrzej Tichy

Wretchedness By Andrzej Tichy

Wretchedness by Andrzej Tichy


£9.99
Condition - Like New
Only 1 left

Summary

Beauty and poverty; violence, addiction and brotherhood. Written with unstoppable flow, Wretchedness mixes high and low culture in an inimitable way.

Wretchedness Summary

Wretchedness by Andrzej Tichy

Malmoe, Sweden. A cellist meets a spun-out junkie. That could have been me. His mind starts to glitch between his memories and the avant-garde music he loves, and he descends into his past, hearing all over again the chaotic song of his youth. He emerges to a different sound, heading for a crash. From sprawling housing projects to underground clubs and squat parties, Wretchedness is a blistering trip through the underbelly of Europe's cities. Powered by a furious, unpredictable beat, this is a paean to brotherhood, to those who didn't make it however hard they fought, and a visceral indictment of the poverty which took them.

Wretchedness Reviews

'An utterly phenomenal read: a masterclass in hyper-modernist experimentation, voice and form. Embracing the bitter realities of addiction, prejudice and inner-city turmoil, Tichy's rapid prose roves internal dialogues, places, vernaculars and circumstances to expose a singular, absorbed world struggling to keep itself afloat. Through a complex network of characters, friends and strangers we're made to think about the ways the human spirit can fall into despair, its ability to establish resolve, to love and remember, and the myriad philosophies it leaves us with.' Anthony Anaxagorou ----'Wretchedness is a wild intoxicant of language, momentum, and voice. Andrzej Tichy is a master of despair.' Patty Yumi Cottrell ----'Some kind of holy/unholy meeting of Thomas Bernhard and The Geto Boys, Wretchedness is an anguished, brutal, beautiful piece of phantasmagoric-realism, an act of remembrance through imagination, animated by rhythm, and pouring past you with the inevitability of the tide coming in. Brilliantly written, superbly translated, this small book packs in more sadness and moments of epiphany, more hopelessness and hope, more surviving - more life! - than most writers manage in a whole career. Remarkable.' Will Ashon ----'The past is so close behind in Nichola Smalley's translation of Tichy's precise maelstrom of memory, music and survival - on the margins of this and every city - that you can smell the chemicals on its breath. There's nothing to lose and too much to lose; no escape and all our escapes. Keep going. Read it and be thankful for Andrzej Tichy.' Tony White ----'A bravura, urgent head-trip of a novel, replete with compassion, rage, and gimlet-eyed observation on every page. Essential reading - us English-speakers are lucky to have Tichy's work available in translation at last.' Luke Kennard ----'A powerful, voice-driven novel that remains in the mind long after the final page. Tichy brings everything to life: circumstances and people we'd rather ignore, with a flow resembling music.' Derek Owusu ----'The pleasures of this book are immediate, brilliant and deeply unreasonable. Every person and every thought is intensely present. It demeans nothing.' Caleb Klaces ----'Wretchedness is a red-blooded ode to the most invisible and unwanted in society - immigrant workers, the homeless, addicts, and those born into the hardest of circumstances. Tichy's gasping, polyphonic prose flies through time and space and drug-induced states, flinging us between disturbing recollections, hopeless presents, and deferred or tainted futures - all connected by bittersour camaraderies and the remedying power of music.' Jen Calleja----'Graphic depictions of crime, racism, poverty, drug use and violence are rendered through paragraph-free slabs of text that propulsively veer between voices and minds, times and locations. As well as the Swedish estates, the novel draws on Tichy's experiences of living in Hamburg and London to paint a picture of a pan-European community of the excluded passing through squats, underground clubs, petty scams and cash-only employment. [...] Tichy's early creative life centered on music and there is a sense of musicality inherent Wretchedness.' Nicholas Wroe, Guardian ----'An inventive, linguistically adept experiment.' Kirkus Reviews

About Andrzej Tichy

Andrzej Tichy was born in Prague to a Polish mother and a Czech father. He has lived in Sweden since 1981. The author of five novels, a short story collection and a wide range of nonfiction and criticism, Tichy writes literary prose with raw stylistic flair. He is widely recognized as one of the most important novelists of his generation, successfully merging depictions of acute social and political issues with a vivid formal awareness. His latest novel Elandet (Wretchedness) is a postpolitical foray into modern day Swedish society. It was shortlisted for the August Prize 2016, Sweden's most prestigious literary prize. A translator and lover of Swedish and Norwegian literature, Nichola Smalley is also publicist at And Other Stories and an escaped academic - in 2014 she finished her PhD exploring the use of contemporary urban vernaculars in Swedish and UK rap and literature at UCL. Her translations range from Jogo Bonito by Henrik Brandao Joensson (Yellow Jersey Press), a Swedish book about Brazilian football, to the latest novel by Norwegian superstar Jostein Gaarder, An Unreliable Man (Weidenfeld & Nicolson).

Additional information

GOR010685228
9781911508762
1911508768
Wretchedness by Andrzej Tichy
Used - Like New
Paperback
And Other Stories
2020-06-02
176
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
The book has been read, but looks new. The book cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket is included if applicable. No missing or damaged pages, no tears, possible very minimal creasing, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins

Customer Reviews - Wretchedness