Fish Soup
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"...a gorgeous, blackly humorous look into the lives of Colombians struggling to find their place in society, both at home and abroad.” —Publishers Weekly, starred reviewIn two novellas and seven short stories, Fish Soup blends cynicism and beauty with a rich vein of dark humour."Waiting for a Hurricane" follows a girl obsessed with escaping both her life and her country. Emotionally detached from her family, and disillusioned with what the future holds if she remains, she takes ever more drastic steps to achieve her goal, seemingly oblivious to the damage she is causing both herself and those around her. "Worse Things" offers snapshots of lives in turmoil, frayed relationships, family taboos, and rejection of and by society. And "Sexual Education" examines the attempts of a student to tally the strict doctrine of abstinence taught at her school with the very different moral norms that prevail in her social circles.At once blunt and poetic, Garcia Robayo delves into the lives of her characters, simultaneously evoking sympathy and revulsion, challenging the reader’s loyalties throughout the remarkable universe that is Fish Soup .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Consisting of two novellas and seven stories, Garc a Robayo's collection, her first to be translated into English, is a gorgeous, blackly humorous look into the lives of Colombians struggling to find their place in society, both at home and abroad. In the title story, a widower barkeep hallucinates images of his late wife sleeping with local sailors, while "Better Than Me" places a professor in Italy as he tries to reconcile with his reluctant adult daughter. Narrated by a nameless female character, the novella "Waiting for a Hurricane" is a study in longing, following the protagonist from preteen to early adulthood while she pursues, with increasing desperation, an escape from her seaside hometown. "Sexual Education," the other novella, is a sharp examination of Catholic school guilt in which a teen studies abstinence in high school and is consistently tempted by sex. Every tale is provocative, and Garc a Robayo writes with an authority that is sure to resonate. Her style weaves conversational frankness with emotional depth, and the resulting stories are hard to shake.
