In Concrete
Published on 24. June 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
152 pages
978-1-64605-055-0 (ISBN)
Description
Garreta's first novel in a decade follows the mania that descends upon a family when the father finds himself in possession of a concrete mixer. As he seeks to modernize every aspect of their lives, disaster strikes when the younger sister is subsumed by concrete.
Through puns, wordplay, and dizzying verbal effect, Garreta reinvents the novel form and blurs the line between spoken and written language in an attempt to confront the elasticity of communication.
Through puns, wordplay, and dizzying verbal effect, Garreta reinvents the novel form and blurs the line between spoken and written language in an attempt to confront the elasticity of communication.
Reviews / Votes
Recipient of the 2020 Hemingway Grant by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy"Oulipo member Garreta's wonderfully strange latest (after Not One Day) chronicles the misfortunes that befall a family after the father receives a concrete mixer for his birthday... Ramadan, winner of the PEN Translation Prize, makes each of the pages sing. Fans of experimental fiction will find this delightful." -Publishers Weekly
"Through a unique writing style where spelling mistakes coexist with onomatopoeias and saucy allusions, the border between spoken and written language gradually ceases to exist." -The Cultural Services of the French Embassy
Praise for SphinxOne of Flavorwire's Top 50 Independent Books of 2015
One of Entropy Magazine's Best Fiction Books of 2015
One of Bookriot's 100 Must-Read Books Translated From French
One of FSG editor Jackson Howard's favorite books of 2018 on FSG's blog Work in Progress
"The set-up is such a classic, relatable tale of falling in - and out - of love that one wonders why gender has always been such a huge factor in how we discuss relationships, in fiction and otherwise. . . . So, the author, and the translator, created their own language, championing love and desire over power and difference." - Maddie Crum, Huffington Post
"Garreta's aim was to overthrow gender binaries carried by language, and in light of recent demands by transgender groups to use gender neutral pronouns, Sphinx seems curiously prescient." - Catherine Humble, The Times Literary Supplement (TLS)
"...Sphinx highlights the already limiting nature of language when it comes to matters of gender, and of love." - Stephanie Hayes, The Atlantic
"The strength of [Sphinx] lies in its philosophical eloquence . . . Take away gender and race from the book, and what's left? Love, viewed as a nihilistic transcendence . . . considerably more than a language game." - Adam Mars-Jones, London Review of Books
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Texas
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 201 mm
Width: 125 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
220 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-64605-055-0 (9781646050550)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Anne F. Garreta is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Superieure, received her License de Lettres at the Universite Paris 4 (Sorbonne), her Maitrise and her D.E.A at the Universite Paris 7 (Diderot), and a PhD at New York University. The author of six novels, Garreta was coopted to the Oulipo in 2000. Her first novel, Sphinx (1986), which caused a sensation when Deep Vellum published its first English translation in 2015, tells a love story between two people without giving any indication of grammatical gender for the narrator or their lover. She won France's prestigious Prix Medicis in 2002 and the Albertine Prize in 2018 for her book, Not One Day, which was also nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. Garreta teaches regularly in France at the Universite Rennes 2, and more recently at Paris 7 (Diderot), and is a professor at Duke University.
Emma Ramadan is a literary translator of poetry and prose from France, the Middle East, and North Africa. She is the recipient of a Fulbright, an NEA Translation Fellowship, a PEN/Heim grant, and the 2018 Albertine Prize. Her translations for Deep Vellum include Anne Garreta's Sphinx and Not One Day, Fouad Laroui's The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers, and Brice Matthieussent's Revenge of the Translator. She is based in Providence, RI, where she co-owns Riffraff bookstore and bar.
Emma Ramadan is a literary translator of poetry and prose from France, the Middle East, and North Africa. She is the recipient of a Fulbright, an NEA Translation Fellowship, a PEN/Heim grant, and the 2018 Albertine Prize. Her translations for Deep Vellum include Anne Garreta's Sphinx and Not One Day, Fouad Laroui's The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers, and Brice Matthieussent's Revenge of the Translator. She is based in Providence, RI, where she co-owns Riffraff bookstore and bar.