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Seven Houses in France

Seven Houses in France

by Bernardo Atxaga (Author), Margaret Jull Costa Costa (Translator)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2011

    $3.28
Synopsis

The year is 1903, and the garrison of Yangambi on the banks of the River Congo is under the command of Captain Lalande Biran. The captain is also a poet whose ambition is to amass a fortune and return to the literary cafes of Paris. His glamorous wife Christine has a further ambition: to own seven houses in France, a house for every year he has been abroad. At Lalande Biran's side are the ex-legionnaire van Thiegel, a brutal womaniser, and the servile, treacherous Donatien, who dreams of running a brothel. The officers spend their days guarding enslaved rubber-tappers and kidnapping young girls, and at their hands the jungle is transformed into a wild circus of human ambition and absurdity. But everything changes with the arrival of a new officer and brilliant marksman: the enigmatic Chrysostome Liege. This is an outstanding new novel from the critically acclaimed and prizewinning author Bernardo Atxaga, "Seven Houses in France" is a blackly comic tale which reveals the darkest sides of human desire.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 256
 Publisher: Harvill Secker
Published: 03 Nov 2011
ISBN 10: 1846554470
ISBN 13: 9781846554476
Book Overview: Longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2012. A dark tale of human ambition by the European master A.S. Byatt has termed 'A brilliantly inventive writer'

Media Reviews
Seven Houses in France is an enjoyable, somewhat frightening novel by one of Europe's best novelists... Atxaga is still the master of a complex story, told with deceptive simplicity. -- Michael Eaude Independent With his sixth novel, Basque writer Atxaga puts us squarely in Heart of Darkness territory, although his is a more blackly absurd version of the world than that of Joseph Conrad. Unsettling, often unpleasant, but undeniably compelling. -- Amber Pearson Daily Mail Bizarrely funny and beautifully crafted...His gift for interesting, unusual syntax, his wonderful pacing and surprising, vibrant language give one the feeling of being in safe hands. -- Mira Mattar Times Literary Supplement Atxaga tackles the excesses of colonialism with an assured touch; his humour is dark, the silenced voices of the natives are pointed, and his evocation of how reality becomes distorted when men are trapped in suffocating tedium is fascinatingly rigorous. Metro A dark comedy about the vanity of human desires which deftly balances compassion and cynicism -- Adrian Turpin Financial Times
Author Bio
Bernardo Atxaga was born in Gipuzkoa in Spain in 1951 and lives in the Basque Country, writing in Basque and Spanish. He is a prizewinning novelist and poet, whose books, including Obabakoak and The Accordionist's Son, have won critical acclaim in Spain and abroad. His works have been translated into twenty-five languages.