In a city called Nevers, there lives a professor of literature called Q. He has a dull marriage and a lackluster career, but also a scrumptious collection of antique dolls locked away in his cupboard. And soon Q lands his crowning acquisition: a music box ballerina named Aliss who has tantalizingly sprung to life. Guided by his mysterious friend Owlish and inspired by an inexplicably familiar painting, Q embarks on an all-consuming love affair with Aliss, oblivious to the protests spreading across the university that have left his classrooms all but empty.
The mountainous city of Nevers is itself a mercurial character with concrete flesh, glimmering new construction, and “colonial flair.” Having fled there as a child refugee, Q thought he knew the faces of the city and its people, but Nevers is alive with secrets and shape-shifting geographies. The winner of a 2021 PEN/Heim translation fund grant, Owlish is a fantastically eerie debut novel that is also a bold exploration of life under oppressive regimes.
In a city called Nevers, there lives a professor of literature called Q. He has a dull marriage and a lackluster career, but also a scrumptious collection of antique dolls locked away in his cupboard. And soon Q lands his crowning acquisition: a music box ballerina named Aliss who has tantalizingly sprung to life. Guided by his mysterious friend Owlish and inspired by an inexplicably familiar painting, Q embarks on an all-consuming love affair with Aliss, oblivious to the protests spreading across the university that have left his classrooms all but empty.
The mountainous city of Nevers is itself a mercurial character with concrete flesh, glimmering new construction, and “colonial flair.” Having fled there as a child refugee, Q thought he knew the faces of the city and its people, but Nevers is alive with secrets and shape-shifting geographies. The winner of a 2021 PEN/Heim translation fund grant, Owlish is a fantastically eerie debut novel that is also a bold exploration of life under oppressive regimes.
| Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — May 16, 2023 |
| Specifications | 224 pages | 5.5 in x 8.25 in |
| Keywords | social justice; magical realism; frankenstein; dystopia; saha; kim ji young; cho nam joo; international literature; fairy tale; |
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Excerpt |
| Written By |
DOROTHY TSE is the author of several short-story collections and has received the Hong Kong Book Prize, Hong Kong Biennial Award for Chinese Literature, and Taiwan’s Unitas New Fiction Writers’ Award. Her first book to appear in English, Snow and Shadow (translated by Nicky Harman), was longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award. She is the co-founder of the literary journal Fleurs des Lettres. |
| Written By |
|
DOROTHY TSE is the author of several short-story collections and has received the Hong Kong Book Prize, Hong Kong Biennial Award for Chinese Literature, and Taiwan’s Unitas New Fiction Writers’ Award. Her first book to appear in English, Snow and Shadow (translated by Nicky Harman), was longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award. She is the co-founder of the literary journal Fleurs des Lettres. |
What’s most evocative about Owlish is its scrupulous recall of the city’s quirks … [Tse] wittily captures a recent crisis moment in Hong Kong, exploring a discombobulating state caught between civilisation and its discontents.
” —Guardianfantastical yet utterly absurd … Tse’s novel is ultimately a discussion of British colonialism, oppression and censorship.
” —Stanford Daily