Before the Feast
Description
<i>We are sad. We don't have a ferryman any more. The ferryman is dead. Two lakes, no ferryman. You can't get to the islands now unless you have a boat. Or unless you are a boat.</i>
It's the night before the Feast in the village of Fuerstenfelde (population: declining), but not everyone is asleep. The local artist, wearing an evening dress and gum-boots, goes down to the lake under cover of darkness. The village archivist is kept awake by ancient tales that threaten to take on a life of their own. A retired lieutenant-colonel weighs his pistol, and his future, in his hand. And eighteen-year-old Anna, namesake of the Feast, prepares to take her place in tomorrow's drinking and dancing, eating and burning.
On this night of misdeeds and mischief, they are joined by a dead ferryman, a hapless bellringer, a cigarette machine, two robbers in football shirts and a vixen on the hunt - as their fates collide in the most unexpected ways.
The highly regarded and bestselling author <strong>Sasa Stanisic</strong> was born in 1978 in what was then Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina), and currently lives in Germany. <em>Before the Feast</em>, his second novel, was a bestseller in Germany and won the prestigious Leipzig Book Fair Prize; his award-winning debut <em>How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone</em> has been translated into 30 languages, and is also published by Pushkin Press.
Reviews / Votes
Episodic, impressionistic and whimsical... clever and funny -- Tibor Fischer * The Guardian * Switching among styles with a dancing virtuosity, Stanisic knits a dozen characters into a multi-stranded tissue of gossip, myth and memory... [layering] tales from past and present into a late-summer night's dream... Stanisic makes a dream team with Anthea Bell, who translates with a pitch-perfect ear for every twist and frisk of his German... its sheer versatility of voice and multiplicity of viewpoint mean that this vigil never drags -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent * A brilliant, quirky entertainment * Kirkus * Exceptional... cleverly done, and so mesmerising from the off... beautifully written... thought-provoking and energetic * Big Issue * Offensively gifted... some kind of freak genius * Irish Examiner * A book like few others. Politically well-versed and stylistically a work of art * Die Zeit * In literature anything goes, if one can do it. Sasa Stanisic proves, with Before the Feast: he can * Welt am Sonntag * In Before the Feast Sasa Stanisic tells a story as if there were no tomorrow. His novel is the event of the Spring * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung * A storyteller with an infinite well of resources * Spiegel * Is one allowed to accuse an author of knowing how good he is, when, after all, he is so damned good? * taz * A furious tragicomedy * Spiegel Online * A highly talented, passionate storyteller * Taz * In its combination of the fantastic, the menacing and the inexplicable, it reminded me of nothing so much as A Midsummer Night's Dream filtered through the uncanny lens of Welcome to Night Vale * Elle Thinks * A furious choral song in prose * 2014 Leipzig Book Fair Prize Jury * A gifted storyteller * Village Voice * Unforgettable characters, joyfully inventive storytelling... wise,highly entertaining and full of chutzpah * Die Welt *More details
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