The Rooftop
Published on 12. October 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
112 pages
978-1-913867-04-1 (ISBN)
Description
In a rundown apartment building, in an unnamed city in Uruguay, a father and daughter close themselves off from the world.
"The world is this house," says Clara, and the rooftop becomes their last recess of freedom. A pet canary is their only witness.
As Clara's connection to the outside is stripped away-the neighbor who stops coming by, the lover whose existence is only known by a pregnancy-desperation and paranoia take hold. It's a stifling embrace, and we are there with her, our narrator, dreading what we know the future holds.
"The world is this house," says Clara, and the rooftop becomes their last recess of freedom. A pet canary is their only witness.
As Clara's connection to the outside is stripped away-the neighbor who stops coming by, the lover whose existence is only known by a pregnancy-desperation and paranoia take hold. It's a stifling embrace, and we are there with her, our narrator, dreading what we know the future holds.
Reviews / Votes
"Trias deftly turns her brief fiction into universal parable." -Shelf Awareness"An exceptional novel." -ABC Cultural
"Like a constrictor slowly suffocating its prey, Trias already has you well within her grasp long before you even know what's happening." -Jeremy Garber, Powell's Bookshop
"A chilling tour-de-force by one of the most exciting and subversive voices writing today in Latin America." -Morning Star
"A short and powerful read, it demands to be re-read and scrutinised." -Lunate
"what is most striking about the book is the intensity of the claustrophobia and paranoia" -The Publishing Post
"Many read Rooftop like a disturbing love story between a father and his daughter, but this novel is much more than that. It is the genesis of the themes that will be at the centre of everything that Trias would move on to write: fear, violence, loss and freedom." -WMagazin
"Masterfully written, with a simplicity and honesty that reminds us of the prose of Flannery O'Connor." -Revista de Letras
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Praise for Fernanda Trias
'Fernanda Trias appears from the antipodes of the sterile literature currently in vogue, to show us she is one of the most interesting authors writing in Spanish today.'-Mario Levrero , author of Empty Words
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 194 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
178 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-913867-04-1 (9781913867041)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Considered to be one of the authors forming part of the 'new Latin American Boom' of women writers, Fernanda Trias (Uruguay, 1976) is without doubt one of the most prominent literary voices in today's River Plate region and in all of Latin America. Her books have been published in Spain as well as in Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, and France.
Annie McDermott is the translator of a dozen books from Spanish and Portuguese, by such writers as Mario Levrero, Ariana Harwicz, Brenda Lozano, Fernanda Trias and Lidia Jorge. She was awarded the Premio Valle-Inclan for her translation of Wars of the Interior by Joseph Zarate, and her translation of Brickmakers by Selva Almada was shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. In 2024 her translation of Selva Almada's novel Not a River was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. She has previously lived in Mexico City and Sao Paulo, and is now based in Hastings in the UK.
Annie McDermott is the translator of a dozen books from Spanish and Portuguese, by such writers as Mario Levrero, Ariana Harwicz, Brenda Lozano, Fernanda Trias and Lidia Jorge. She was awarded the Premio Valle-Inclan for her translation of Wars of the Interior by Joseph Zarate, and her translation of Brickmakers by Selva Almada was shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. In 2024 her translation of Selva Almada's novel Not a River was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. She has previously lived in Mexico City and Sao Paulo, and is now based in Hastings in the UK.