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{"id":7055104999483,"title":"Owlish","handle":"owlish","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe winner of a 2021 PEN\/Heim Translation Fund grant, \u003cem\u003eOwlish\u003c\/em\u003e is a fantastically eerie debut novel that is also a bold exploration of life under oppressive regimes. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a city called Nevers, there lives a professor of literature called Q. He has a dull marriage and a lackluster career, but also a scrumptious collection of antique dolls locked away in his cupboard. And soon Q lands his crowning acquisition: a music box ballerina named Aliss who has tantalizingly sprung to life. Guided by his mysterious friend Owlish and inspired by an inexplicably familiar painting, Q embarks on an all-consuming love affair with Aliss, oblivious to the protests spreading across the university that have left his classrooms all but empty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mountainous city of Nevers is itself a mercurial character with concrete flesh, glimmering new construction, and “colonial flair.” Having fled there as a child refugee, Q thought he knew the faces of the city and its people, but Nevers is alive with secrets and shape-shifting geographies.\u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2022-12-05T13:38:23-05:00","created_at":"2022-12-05T13:15:50-05:00","vendor":"House of Anansi Press Inc","type":"","tags":["Adult BIPOC Voices","Anansi International","By (author) Tse Dorothy","Literary Fiction","pub date: 2023-05-16","Technology \u0026 Politics","Translated by Bruce Natascha"],"price":1899,"price_min":1899,"price_max":2299,"available":true,"price_varies":true,"compare_at_price":null,"compare_at_price_min":0,"compare_at_price_max":0,"compare_at_price_varies":false,"variants":[{"id":41002635558971,"title":"trade paperback","option1":"trade paperback","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9781487011581","requires_shipping":true,"taxable":true,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"Owlish - trade paperback","public_title":"trade paperback","options":["trade paperback"],"price":2299,"weight":277,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9781487011581","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]},{"id":41002636083259,"title":"Default Title","option1":"Default Title","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9781487011598","requires_shipping":false,"taxable":true,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"Owlish","public_title":null,"options":["Default Title"],"price":1899,"weight":0,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":null,"barcode":"9781487011598","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/houseofanansi.com\/cdn\/shop\/files\/BNCImageAPI_6ddf08ec-2b1c-453b-9a2c-1bdaa7296e52.jpg?v=1709621372"],"featured_image":"\/\/houseofanansi.com\/cdn\/shop\/files\/BNCImageAPI_6ddf08ec-2b1c-453b-9a2c-1bdaa7296e52.jpg?v=1709621372","options":["Title"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":24267421122619,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.667,"height":2475,"width":1650,"src":"\/\/houseofanansi.com\/cdn\/shop\/files\/BNCImageAPI_6ddf08ec-2b1c-453b-9a2c-1bdaa7296e52.jpg?v=1709621372"},"aspect_ratio":0.667,"height":2475,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/houseofanansi.com\/cdn\/shop\/files\/BNCImageAPI_6ddf08ec-2b1c-453b-9a2c-1bdaa7296e52.jpg?v=1709621372","width":1650}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe winner of a 2021 PEN\/Heim Translation Fund grant, \u003cem\u003eOwlish\u003c\/em\u003e is a fantastically eerie debut novel that is also a bold exploration of life under oppressive regimes. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a city called Nevers, there lives a professor of literature called Q. He has a dull marriage and a lackluster career, but also a scrumptious collection of antique dolls locked away in his cupboard. And soon Q lands his crowning acquisition: a music box ballerina named Aliss who has tantalizingly sprung to life. Guided by his mysterious friend Owlish and inspired by an inexplicably familiar painting, Q embarks on an all-consuming love affair with Aliss, oblivious to the protests spreading across the university that have left his classrooms all but empty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mountainous city of Nevers is itself a mercurial character with concrete flesh, glimmering new construction, and “colonial flair.” Having fled there as a child refugee, Q thought he knew the faces of the city and its people, but Nevers is alive with secrets and shape-shifting geographies.\u003c\/p\u003e"}
{"AlsoRecommendedISBN_0":"9781487005832","AlsoRecommendedISBN_1":"9781487006990","AlsoRecommendedISBN_2":"9781487009809","BASICMainSubject":"FIC055000","BASICMainSubjectLiteral":"FICTION \/ Dystopian","BiographicalNote":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDOROTHY TSE\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of several short-story collections and has received the Hong Kong Book Prize, Hong Kong Biennial Award for Chinese Literature, and Taiwan’s Unitas New Fiction Writers’ Award. Her first book to appear in English, \u003cem\u003eSnow and Shadow\u003c\/em\u003e (translated by Nicky Harman), was longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award. She is the co-founder of the literary journal \u003cem\u003eFleurs des Lettres\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","BISACSubjectLiteral_0":"FICTION \/ Dystopian","BISACSubjectLiteral_1":"FICTION \/ Own Voices","BISACSubjectLiteral_2":"FICTION \/ Literary","BISACSubject_0":"FIC055000","BISACSubject_1":"FIC082000","BISACSubject_2":"FIC019000","ContributorBio_0":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDOROTHY TSE\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of several short-story collections and has received the Hong Kong Book Prize, Hong Kong Biennial Award for Chinese Literature, and Taiwan’s Unitas New Fiction Writers’ Award. Her first book to appear in English, \u003cem\u003eSnow and Shadow\u003c\/em\u003e (translated by Nicky Harman), was longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award. She is the co-founder of the literary journal \u003cem\u003eFleurs des Lettres\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n","ContributorBio_1":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNATASCHA BRUCE\u003c\/strong\u003e translates fiction from Chinese. Her work includes \u003cem\u003eLonely Face\u003c\/em\u003e by Yeng Pway Ngon, \u003cem\u003eBloodline \u003c\/em\u003eby Patigül, N\u003cem\u003eLake Like a Mirror\u003c\/em\u003e by Ho Sok Fong, and \u003cem\u003eMystery Train\u003c\/em\u003e by Can Xue. Her translation of Dorothy Tse’s poem “Cloth Birds” was a winner of the 2019 Words Without Borders Poems in Translation Prize. After several years in Hong Kong, she now lives in Amsterdam.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n","ContributorRole_0":"By (author)","ContributorRole_1":"Translated by","Contributor_0":"Tse, Dorothy","Contributor_1":"Bruce, Natascha","Description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe winner of a 2021 PEN\/Heim Translation Fund grant, \u003cem\u003eOwlish\u003c\/em\u003e is a fantastically eerie debut novel that is also a bold exploration of life under oppressive regimes. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a city called Nevers, there lives a professor of literature called Q. He has a dull marriage and a lackluster career, but also a scrumptious collection of antique dolls locked away in his cupboard. And soon Q lands his crowning acquisition: a music box ballerina named Aliss who has tantalizingly sprung to life. Guided by his mysterious friend Owlish and inspired by an inexplicably familiar painting, Q embarks on an all-consuming love affair with Aliss, oblivious to the protests spreading across the university that have left his classrooms all but empty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mountainous city of Nevers is itself a mercurial character with concrete flesh, glimmering new construction, and “colonial flair.” Having fled there as a child refugee, Q thought he knew the faces of the city and its people, but Nevers is alive with secrets and shape-shifting geographies.\u003c\/p\u003e","EAN":"9781487011581","excerpt_0":"https:\/\/biblioshare.org\/BNCservices\/BNCServices.asmx\/Samples?token=fcf85c1c1b298e99\u0026amp;ean=9781487011581\u0026amp;SAN=\u0026amp;Perspective=excerpt\u0026amp;FileNumber=0","Height":"8.25","HeightCode":"in","Imprint":"Anansi International","MetaKeywords":"fable","NumberOfPages":"224","OtherText_Accolades_0":"\u003cp\u003eBeguilingly eerie, richly textured, the pages of \u003cem\u003eOwlish\u003c\/em\u003e are drenched in strange beauty and menace. Like all the best fairy tales, it reveals the dark truths that we would rather not look at directly, and does so with a surreal and singular clarity.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Accolades_0_Auth":"Sophie Mackintosh, author of Cursed Bread","OtherText_Accolades_1":"\u003cp\u003eA magical and potent tale for these tyrannical times.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Accolades_1_Auth":"NoViolet Bulawayo, author of Glory","OtherText_Accolades_2":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOwlish\u003c\/em\u003e is so delightfully creepy, wonderful, and strange—I loved it.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Accolades_2_Auth":"Camilla Grudova, author of Children of Paradise","OtherText_Accolades_3":"\u003cp\u003eA bold, brilliantly absorbing read. This clever, mercurial portrait of an alternate Hong Kong lingers long after the last page.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Accolades_3_Auth":"Irenosen Okojie, author of Nudibranch","OtherText_Accolades_4":"\u003cp\u003eDorothy Tse is a magnificent historian of unreal places. Her sage and serious characters are cast adrift in realities that are neither sage nor serious at all—and possibly impossible. Her parallel worlds and paradoxes brilliantly illuminate our own reality, with all its fictions masquerading as facts (and vice versa). Boundlessly creative, richly philosophical—I loved this book.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Accolades_4_Auth":"Joanna Kavenna, author of Zed","OtherText_Accolades_5":"\u003cp\u003eBy turns playful and melancholy, Dorothy Tse’s tales never fail to mesmerize. They are wonderfully assured, and genuinely strange.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Accolades_5_Auth":"Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, author of Likes","OtherText_Accolades_6":"\u003cp\u003eTse joins the ranks of artists currently remaking the world, from Yoko Tawada to César Aira.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Accolades_6_Auth":"Joyelle McSweeney, author of Toxicon and Arachne","OtherText_Back_cover_copy_0":"\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003eOn one level, the novel is about a middle-aged professor’s doomed love affair with a doll named Aliss. But it is also a highly ambitious and original exploration of life under oppressive political regimes. Set in an alternate near-future, \u003cem\u003eOwlish\u003c\/em\u003e is a boldly innovative wake-up call, forcing readers to confront the perils of apathy, complacency, and indifference.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUpon original publication the novel was a finalist for the fiction prize at the 2021 Taipei Book Fair. Tse has previously won the Hong Kong Book Prize, the Hong Kong Biennial Award for Chinese Literature, Taiwan’s Unitas New Fiction Writers’ Award, and the Hong Kong Award for Creative Writing in Chinese. \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eUK rights to \u003cem\u003eOwlish\u003c\/em\u003e were acquired by Fitzcarraldo in a seven-way auction in early 2021.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","OtherText_Review_0":"\u003cp\u003eThrough the dark rearview mirror of Tse’s fiction, Hong Kong’s past collides with its future.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Review_0_Auth":"Bookseller","OtherText_Review_0_Src":"New York Times","OtherText_Review_1":"\u003cp\u003eIt is as though [\u003cem \u003eOwlish\u003c\/em\u003e], with its ellipses and obstructed messages, were depicting the reality-warping effects of an uncanny, constraining force—a force like state censorship.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Review_1_Src":"New Yorker","OtherText_Review_2":"\u003cp\u003eWhat’s most evocative about \u003cem \u003eOwlish\u003c\/em\u003e is its scrupulous recall of the city’s quirks … [Tse] wittily captures a recent crisis moment in Hong Kong, exploring a discombobulating state caught between civilisation and its discontents.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Review_2_Src":"Guardian","OtherText_Review_3":"\u003cp\u003eI was blown away by the craft, inventiveness, and humour of \u003cem\u003eOwlish\u003c\/em\u003e … A frustrated literature professor retreats into a secret inner world in this playful novel set in an alternate Hong Kong: a disquieting tale of revolt and rebellion, denial and self-delusion, and the tricks we perform to keep going in life … \u003cem\u003eOwlish\u003c\/em\u003e is both a sly subversion of fairytales and a Kafkaesque portrait of life under an oppressive regime.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Review_3_Auth":"Bookseller","OtherText_Review_3_Src":"Financial Times","OtherText_Review_4":"\u003cp\u003eAbsorbing, erotic and at times nightmarish. \u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Review_4_Src":"The Guardian","OtherText_Review_5":"\u003cp\u003eTse combines the banal and the fantastic to terrific effect. Full of striking imagery, \u003cem\u003eOwlish \u003c\/em\u003eis a vertiginous tale of a people sleepwalking into catastrophe.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Review_5_Src":"Financial Times","OtherText_Review_6":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem \u003eOwlish \u003c\/em\u003emoves past allegory and arrives at a place that is more profound.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Review_6_Src":"Brooklyn Rail","OtherText_Review_7":"\u003cp\u003efantastical yet utterly absurd … Tse’s novel is ultimately a discussion of British colonialism, oppression and censorship.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Review_7_Src":"Stanford Daily","OtherText_Review_8":"\u003cp\u003eA wonderfully imaginative fable that resonates with political critique and protest.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Review_8_Src":"Kirkus","OtherText_Review_9":"\u003cp\u003eWith consummate skill, Tse builds a strange yet somehow familiar backdrop for her story.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Review_9_Src":"Asian Review of Books","OtherText_ShortDescription_0":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWith your face covered, sneaking into a city you thought you knew, are you still yourself? Or have you crossed to another world, where the streets are unpredictable and the people strangers, where you might at any moment run into some unknown dream version of yourself?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","ProductFormDescription":"trade paperback","PublicationDate":"2023-05-16","Publisher":"House of Anansi Press Inc","ShortDescription":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWith your face covered, sneaking into a city you thought you knew, are you still yourself? Or have you crossed to another world, where the streets are unpredictable and the people strangers, where you might at any moment run into some unknown dream version of yourself?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","Width":"5.5","WidthCode":"in"}