Absurdist Fiction

Prendete la pancia di un uomo, Roversi. Aggiungete una moglie, un lavoro e novantasei chili di abitudini. Ora siate rudi: togliete la moglie, il lavoro e le abitudini. I novantasei chili, invece, chiudeteli a chiave nel bagno delle donne del cinema Corallo. Deciso a non uscire più, Roversi si troverà a riflettere. In fuga dal suo mondo, sarà il resto del mondo a venirlo a cercare: venditori porta a porta, preti, maniaci, idraulici, travestiti, cani, fotografi, psicanalisti, fabbri, cultori di film western. E donne, naturalmente.

Der neue Roman nach dem Bestseller "Die Ladenhüterin" Der neue Roman von Japans Erfolgsautorin Sayaka Murata erzählt die Geschichte zweier Außenseiter, Natsuki und ihr Cousin Yu, die sich jung verlieben und gemeinsam gegen eine Welt verbünden, die ihnen beileibe nicht nur Gutes will. Im alten Farmhaus der Familie, in dem früher die Seidenraupen ihren Dienst verrichteten, sind sie glücklich, denn sie sind beieinander. 20 Jahre später geht Natsuki an diesen Ort zurück.

Margherita Dolcevita è una ragazzina allegra, intelligente e appena sovrappeso, con un cuore che di tanto in tanto perde un colpo. Vive con la famiglia fra città e campagna. Un giorno, davanti alla sua casa, spunta, come un fungo, un cubo di vetro nero circondato da un asettico giardino sintetico e da una palizzata di siepi. Sono arrivati i signori Del Bene, i portatori del "nuovo", della beatitudine del consumo. Amici o corruttori? La famiglia di Margherita cade in una sorta di oscuro incantesimo, nessuno rimane immune.

Uno sceneggiatore di Tangeri che soffre gravemente di insonnia scopre che per poter finalmente dormire deve uccidere qualcuno. Incomincia da sua madre. Sembra assurdo, anzi è assurdo - è sempre stato un uomo onesto, rispettoso, gentile - ma solo uccidendo, come in un gioco surreale, guadagna dei punti-sonno. Per minimizzare il problema, decide di limitarsi a persone già in fin di vita; la sfida è riuscire a essere lì, al loro capezzale, un attimo prima che spirino da sé. Il protagonista dà così il via a imprese rocambolesche per infilarsi nelle camere di ospedale.

Andrej is a postman in complete denial of his existence. He yearns for respect and fame but commits petty crimes for reasons he doesn’t fully comprehend. Josip is an increasingly irrelevant cable car operator and unfaithfully married. Life was so much simpler when neither one knew the other’s secrets. Now that they do - discovered quite by accident - each man has resorted to blackmailing the other. As their anonymous misdeeds escalate, a farce of mutual dependency begins. So does the unlikeliest of friendships when Andrej and Josip finally meet face-to-face.

When Fumiko emerges after one month locked in her dorm room, she's already dead, leaving a half-smoked Marlboro Light and a cupboard of petrified food in her wake. For her boyfriend, Henrik, an aspiring translator, these remnants are like clues, propelling him forward in a search for meaning. Meanwhile, Fumiko, or perhaps her doppelganger, reappears: in line at the Louvre, on street corners and subway platforms, and on the dissection table of a group of young medical students, including “you”.

Yang Wei wakes to find himself still a patient at the hospital. Somehow, he’s aged decades overnight and is confined to the geriatric ward on a massive Hospital ship as it floats along a bloodred sea full of unsightly things. But human remains and sea nymphs are perhaps nothing compared to the goings-on belowdecks.

Los monólogos de Ludovico es la segunda novela con que nos sorprende William Castaño-Bedoya. En esta obra, el autor de la también conmovedora Flores para María Sucel, reafirma sus dotes de recreador de la profundidad humana.

Size matters. Or at least it does to Ed, nitpicking quantity surveyor and captain of his local pub football team who has faked a business trip abroad to get some cheap plastic surgery. Ed intends to be even more of a man upon his return. But has he managed to keep this as secret as he thinks? Will this really be such a wonderful surprise for Fiona on their wedding night? And just who is this operation for anyway?

Due anni, otto mesi e ventotto notti. Il tempo in cui le regole del mondo si rovesciano e strani, inspiegabili fenomeni iniziano ad accadere sulla terra: un giardiniere dal passato tormentato si alza una mattina levitando, un disegnatore di fumetti si trova obbligato allo scontro con il suo personaggio più riuscito, in una sala del municipio viene trovata una neonata dai poteri soprannaturali, un compositore lancia inquietanti profezie, e una giovane e seducente cacciatrice d'oro viene assoldata per una guerra al di là di ogni immaginazione.

As head of the crisis management team at a Madison Avenue PR firm, Leonard Lundell spends his days counseling executives whose reputations have been ruined by scandal. But Leonard has been managing a strange and debilitating crisis of his own that’s held him captive his entire adult life: Leonard likes to eat soap, pencils, paint chips—anything with no nutritional value. For years, he’s kept his compulsion hidden behind a professional veneer.

"Das Schloss" - Kafkas Romanfragment - wurde erst im Jahre 1926, also nach dem Tod des Autoren, veröffentlicht. In typisch kafkaesker Manier wird darin vom Landvermesser K. erzählt, dessen einzige Aufgabe im Leben die zu sein scheint, das Schloss zu erreichen - immerhin wurde er von dort bestellt. Doch dies stellt sich als unüberwindliche Aufgabe dar.

Evoking such classics as Elmer Gantry and The Day of the Locust, William Giraldi's About Face boldly transfers the perennial literary themes of celebrity, ambition, and obsession to twenty-first-century Boston. There we meet Val Face, a charismatic self-help guru who captivates multitudes with his uncanny ability to heal adherents using only the power of his words, the mysterious touch of his hands, and the transcendent beauty of his face.

Billy Boustany uncovers a mystery that transforms his sleepy midwestern city into a vibrant metropolis of iridescent skyscrapers, wild parties, and eccentric characters. This parallel world offers the adventure of a lifetime, but it comes with a perilous secret. When Billy shares his adventure with his college student daughter, their exploration leads them to a magnificent city of Native Americans at an ancient site. However, they soon encounter a formidable foe - the Knights, a secret society bent on keeping outsiders away.

Caught in a redundant housewife existence, Ann never leaves her beige suburban home, her schlubby do-nothing son Brian is directionless after graduating high-school, and it looks like nothing will ever change. But when Brian is swallowed by a whale and Ann receives a garbled phone call from him, she is determined to find that monstrous beast and rescue her son. Experts, her ex, the press—everyone thinks she’s crazy—but she’s committed to her worthy quest.

Charles Vas, il protagonista di "Mondo parallelo" è un tipo alquanto bizzarro e molto sognatore che vede la propria vita cambiare di colpo senza quasi rendersene conto. Per caso si ritrova coinvolto in una missione che lo porterà a varcare il confine tra realtà e fantasia alla ricerca di una misteriosa scatola magica catapultando l'ascoltatore in una nuova visione del mondo e della sua concezione. Lungo il suo percorso incontrerà personaggi reali e irreali che lo condurranno a scoprire il suo destino ma è davvero lui il prescelto?

On the outskirts of Buenos Aires in 1907, Doctor Quintana pines for head nurse Menéndez while he and his colleagues embark on a grisly series of experiments to investigate the line between life and death. One hundred years later, a celebrated artist goes to extremes in search of aesthetic transformation, turning himself into an art object. How far are we willing to go, Larraquy asks, in pursuit of transcendence?

Face your fears - one step at a time. A misguided attempt at redemption by a former hitman; a vengeful anti-hero; another chance at love for a dead man in the future; a regretful prisoner in a far away land; a sleepwalker who believes he's a violent killer.

At the turn of the 20th century, as he composes a treatise on melancholy, Jacov Reinhardt sets off from his small Croatian village in search of his hero and unwitting mentor, Emiliano Gomez Carrasquilla, who is rumored to have disappeared into the South American jungle - "not lost, mind you, but retired." Jacov's narcissistic preoccupation with melancholy consumes him, and as he desperately recounts the myth of his journey to his trusted but ailing scribe, hope for an encounter with the lost philosopher who holds the key to Jacov's obsession seems increasingly unlikely.

Lennart Evert Bengtsson är en man i sina bästa år, tycker han själv i alla fall. En dag råkar han ut för en olyckshändelse som ger upphov till egendomliga drömmar. Många har drömmar men Lennart är mannen som förverkligar dem! Han tar chansen och genomför en av sina märkliga idéer en idé som tar honom till världens alla hörn ... "Jag hade ett leende på läpparna genom hela läsningen och den lämnade mig med en "feel good"-känsla!"