Seven Empty Houses

Samanta Schweblin

Book Info

Publisher

Penguin (2023), 209 pages

ISBN/EAN Product Code

9780525541400

Publisher Description: Winner of the 2022 National Book Award for Translated Literature A blazing new story collection that will make you feel like the house is collapsing in on you, from the 3 time International Booker Prize finalist, "lead[ing] a vanguard of Latin American writers forging their own 21st-century canon.” –O, the Oprah magazine The seven houses in these seven stories are strange. A person is missing, or a truth, or memory; some rooms are enticing, some unmoored, others empty. But in Samanta Schweblin's tense, visionary tales, something always creeps back inside: a ghost, a fight, trespassers, a list of things to do before you die, a child's first encounter with darkness or the fallibility of parents. In each story, twists and turns will unnerve and surprise: Schweblin never takes the expected path and instead digs under the skin, revealing surreal truths about our sense of home, of belonging, and of the fragility of our connections with others. This is a masterwork from one of our most brilliant modern writers. (Publisher's Description)

Links

Barcode

On this shelf:
Books Read in 2023

Thoughts on Seven Empty Houses

Reading the first page of Seven Empty Houses felt like having the bus driver flooring it to 60 mph the moment you step through the door. Dangerous, yes. Disorienting, yes. Disturbing, probably. But not boring.

I didn't know that the paperback edition of the latest from of absolutely savage storytelling from Samanta Schweblin was hitting the shelves until I held it in my hand. Straight into the backpack it went. Translated by Megan McDowell, whose treatment of Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez this year has still been haunting my dreams.