Valeria's Last Stand by Marc Fitten

Valeria's Last Stand by Marc Fitten

In sixty-eight years, Valeria has never minced her words. Harrumphing through her isolated little village deep in the Hungarian steppes, she clutches her shopping basket like a battering ram and leaves nothing uncriticised - flaccid vegetables at the market; idle farmers carousing in Ibolya's Nonstop Tavern; that gauche chimpanzee of a mayor and his flashy, leggy wife; people who whistle. But one day, her spinster's heart is struck by an unlikely arrow: the village potter, with his decisive hands and solid gaze. Valeria finds herself suddenly dressing in florals and touching her hair, and what's more, smiling at people in the street. The potter makes her the most beautiful vase she has ever seen. The farmers buy a celebratory round. The problem with all this is that Ibolya (herself at least fifty-eight) has been romancing the potter for months and vows to win him back. And then there's Ferenc, the sugar beet farmer, red-headed and married but all the same hopelessly in love with Ibolya. Meanwhile the mayor has his own problems, mostly involving foreign investors and a non-existent railway. And then a roving chimney sweep arrives in the village, to make a quick buck and bring some good luck - or perhaps bad luck; no one can really decide. All anyone knows is, there's never been such a hullabaloo, which just goes to show it's never too late to try something new.

'Fitten populates his fairy tale of a novel with bitter coated sugarplums of characters; they will definitely win a place in your heart, even as they'd never stoop to asking for oneIn a Hungarian village so small as to be nearly outside of History-the Germans, the Soviets, the capitalists, no one bothers to stop in this hamlet-these sprites still manage to cheat, love, hate, drink and make pottery for one another with a level of passion we're more accustomed to associating with the very engines of expanding or decaying empires. A beautiful debut.' Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances 'Subtle and brilliant, Valeria's Last Stand is a thoughtful, skillfully drawn portrait of one woman, one village, and one country. Marc Fitten is a writer to watch' Gary Shteyngart 'Marc Fitten's excellent new novel has much to recommend it - wisom, warmth, humor - but it is his creation of the title character herself that is his and the novel's most remarkable achievement. Valeria is every bit as sensual and irrepressible as Chaucer's Wife of Bath, and she will linger in any reader's mind long after the last page is turned.' Ron Rash, author of Serena

Marc Fitten was born in Brooklyn in 1974 and lived in Hungary from 1993 through 1998. He has been published in several American literary quarterlies and publications, including Prairie Schooner and Esquire online.He is the editor of the Chattahoochee Review and of the Red Hen Press Literary Translation Series. Valeria's Last Stand is his first novel and will be published in six countries. Marc Fitten lives in Atlanta

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9781408800225
ISBN 10	1408800225
Titel	Valeria's Last Stand
Autor	Marc Fitten
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Paperback
Verlag	Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Erscheinungsjahr	2009-05-01
Seitenanzahl	272
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.