La Superba

by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Michele Hutchison (Translator)

Overview

"An ode to the imagination."—NRC Handelsblad

A joy to read, La Superba, winner of the most prestigious Dutch literary prize, is a Rabelaisian, stylistic tour-de-force. Migration, legal and illegal, is at the center of this novel about a writer who becomes trapped in his walk on the wild side in mysterious and exotic Genoa, the labyrinthine port city nicknamed "La Superba."

Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (b. 1968), poet, dramatist, novelist, renowned in the Netherlands as a master of language, is the only two-time winner of the Tzum Prize for "the most beautiful sentence written in Dutch" (including one in La Superba!).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781941920237
Publisher:	Deep Vellum Publishing
Publication date:	03/14/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	941 KB

About the Author

Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (b. 1968), a classicist by training, made his debut with the poetry collection van de vierkante man (of the square man, 1999), an homage to the experimental poetry of his great models, Pindar and Lucebert. In the years that followed, in addition to poetry, he has written stage plays, essays, columns, travel accounts, stories, political satires and four novels written in the spirit of Rabelais. In Het grote baggerboek (The Big Book of Dredgings, 2004) and Het ware leven, een roman (Real Life: A Novel, 2006) he played a game with world literature and divided the critics between those proclaiming him a genius and those who thought him an antiquated stylist. He's a bit of both. La Superba is Pfeijffer’s masterpiece, and it has been greeted with unanimous enthusiasm, including the most prominent recognition with the awarding of Libris Literatuurprijs, the Netherlands' most prestigious literary award.

Michele Hutchison (1972) lives in Amsterdam and translates from Dutch and French. She has translated Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Joris Luyendijk, Simone van der Vlugt, Esther Gerritsen and Pierre Bayard, alongside a number of children's books, graphic novels and poems. She also works as an editor and blogger.

Editorial Reviews

04/25/2016
In Pfeijffer's novel, an aimless, unhappy writer named Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer wanders around Genoa, noting that "In a city of straight lines, people are like electrons in a copper wire—fast, interchangeable and invisible... you can never find the same place twice. But because no one can, everyone wanders around those same alleyways all day. Some spend their whole lives wandering around here." This labyrinthine feeling—reflecting both the immigrant experience and the city itself—frames the story, which the narrator channels into a long letter home. The story begins when Ilja, who has lived in Genoa for five years, discovers a woman's leg on the street and develops an erotic attraction to it. This spirals into a search through Genoa's darkest and most secret corners for the most beautiful woman in Genoa, "the fantasy in which I have become more and more lost." The novel suffers from overblown performances of masculinity and ego that come across as more internalized than experimental. The writing is lush and dreamlike, capturing the Old World feel of the city, and the story actually throws in some wild twists, but some readers may feel battered by the exhausting, unrelenting stream of consciousness. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Pfeijffer’s prose shocks and disturbs, and the reader both rejects what he says and yearns to hear more. . . . While the plot itself wanders, three predominant themes emerge: sexual identity, storytelling, and immigration, each a catalyst for transformation. . . . The book asks readers to reconsider the fragility of their own lives and identities and how easily they can be tested by mere relocation. It’s a sympathetic approach to the hidden struggles that immigrants of all backgrounds in Europe face, and a call to be more open and receptive to those on the outskirts of society — after all, it could easily be you." — Alina Cohen, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Abundantly rich in provocative thought." — Anna Paterson, World Literature Today

"La Superba offers an exotic form of chaos and tragedy, and an extremely truthful image of old Italian life in a postmodern city." — Anna Alden, Three Percent

"If Italo Calvino decided to make one of his invisible cities visible, the result might look something like Pfeijffer's Genoa: rooted in the real world of Europe in the age of mass migration, but abstract and mythic enough that the legendary Genoese travelers — Columbus, the Ostrogoths — could still find their way through its labyrinthine streets." — Benjamin Moser, author of Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector

“Tragedy and comedy, life and death, sex and love–these are just a few of the themes explored by Pfeijffer in his wise, brave, gripping novel.” — Willard Manus, Lively Arts

"Thoroughly compelling and lyrical...The stories related throughout La Superba are attention-grabbing and entertaining, sometimes surreal, and at times downright grotesque. But while flirting with the obscene, the novel’s rawness also manages to strike a sympathetic chord." — Lindsay Semel, Asymptote

"Part travelogue and part migrant novel, this story about down-on-their-luck fortune-seekers and a quest to find 'the most beautiful girl in Genoa' is larger-than-life–but, as the author points out, exaggeration doesn’t mean that it’s untrue." — Susie Rodarme, Book Riot (7 Small Press Books to Read in April)

"Deranged and hilarious...With a raucous style and barbed wit." — Peter Simek, D Magazine

"I love La Superba! No wonder the Dutch author and narrator have both relocated south to Genoa, the city called La Superba. This book tells the amazing, hilarious, sad and pathetic story of modern Europe. Immigration, great beauty, worse ugliness, history, culture, life all figure here. Thank you, Deep Vellum, for bringing this masterpiece to readers here in 'La Merica.'" — Lynn, Valley Bookseller (Stillwater, MN)

"An enjoyable—and sometimes very funny—ride. Pfeijffer's style is easy-going, but the poet in him remains attentive to language throughout: for all the casual feel of the novel, it's also a carefully, even precisely written one. Good fun." — Michael Orthofer, The Complete Review

"Pfeijffer's self-deprecating humor and moments of lyricism make La Superba a gem." — Rachel Cordasco, Bookishly Witty

"A pocket edition of Dante’s Inferno." — Dutch Foundation for Literature

"An important novel with universal appeal." — Libris Literature Prize jury report

"An ode to the imagination."— NRC Handelsblad

"Pfeijffer's enthusiasm about the wonders of the imagination is infectious and boundless." — De Volkskrant

“La Superba is finely tuned. The plot is a compelling mix of rich and thought provoking, uncomfortable and beautiful. Pfeijffer’s prose is layered and captivating, the perfectly graceful dance partner to the plot’s unpredictable Voltas. This unique novel is exceedingly relevant, confronting the many sides of the issues—migration, sexuality, space, identity, crime, prejudice, traditionalism—facing Europe today.” — EuropeNow Journal Editor's Pick

"Pfeijffer’s prose is funny, nasty, sharp, and at once self-conscious and absolutely light on its feet." —Jeremy Davies, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

From the Publisher