Things to Make and Break
Published on 28. June 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-1-4736-8362-4 (ISBN)
Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD
A motorcycle courier finds a cache of nude photos in her boyfriend's desk. The daughter of East German emigrants encounters her doppelgaenger, who has crossed another cultural divide. Twin brothers fall for the same girl. When a stripper receives an enigmatic proposal from a client, she accepts, ignorant of its terms.
Shadows, doubles, and the ghosts of past and future lovers haunt these elegantly structured and often hallucinatory stories. The language is hypnotic, deadpan, intense; the sentences jewel-hard and sublime. Things to Make and Break is the work of a stylish, exuberant new voice in modern fiction.
'Quite dazzling' TLS
A motorcycle courier finds a cache of nude photos in her boyfriend's desk. The daughter of East German emigrants encounters her doppelgaenger, who has crossed another cultural divide. Twin brothers fall for the same girl. When a stripper receives an enigmatic proposal from a client, she accepts, ignorant of its terms.
Shadows, doubles, and the ghosts of past and future lovers haunt these elegantly structured and often hallucinatory stories. The language is hypnotic, deadpan, intense; the sentences jewel-hard and sublime. Things to Make and Break is the work of a stylish, exuberant new voice in modern fiction.
'Quite dazzling' TLS
Reviews / Votes
A visceral collection ... There's an irresistible tautness to Tan's writing style, and she looks at her characters with such clear-eyed sensitivity that, as a reader, you can barely tear your eyes away. * AnOther magazine *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Hodder & Stoughton
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 131 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
159 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4736-8362-4 (9781473683624)
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
Person
May-Lan Tan was born in Hong Kong, where her family had migrated from Indonesia. She lived in California before moving to London and now lives in Berlin.
She studied fine art at Goldsmiths and has worked professionally as a children's party entertainer, commercial illustrator, personal chef, artist's model, and medical secretary.
Her fiction has been published in Zoetrope: All-Story, The Atlas Review, Arete, and The Reader. Things to Make and Break was first published by CB Editions in 2014 when it was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.
She studied fine art at Goldsmiths and has worked professionally as a children's party entertainer, commercial illustrator, personal chef, artist's model, and medical secretary.
Her fiction has been published in Zoetrope: All-Story, The Atlas Review, Arete, and The Reader. Things to Make and Break was first published by CB Editions in 2014 when it was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award.