From internationally acclaimed author Margarita García Robayo comes Fish Soup, a unique collection comprising two novellas plus the book of short stories Worse Things (winner of the prestigious Casa de las Américas Prize).
Set on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, Waiting for a Hurricane follows a girl obsessed with escaping both her life and her country. Emotionally detached from her family, and disillusioned with what the future holds if she remains, she takes ever more drastic steps in order to achieve her goal, seemingly oblivious to the damage she is causing both to herself and to those around her.
The tales of Worse Things provide snapshots of lives in turmoil, frayed relationships, dreams of escape, family taboos, and rejection both of and by society. Skilfully painting just enough detail, García Robayo explores these themes and invites the reader to unravel the true significance of the events depicted.
The previously unpublished Sexual Education examines the attempts of a student to tally the strict doctrine of abstinence taught at her school with the very different moral norms that prevail in her social circles. Semi-autobiographical, the frank depiction of these opposing pressures makes it impossible to remain a dispassionate observer.
Throughout the collection, García Robayo’s signature style blends cynicism and beauty with an undercurrent of dark humour. The prose is at once blunt and poetic as she delves into the lives of her characters, who simultaneously evoke sympathy and revulsion, challenging the reader’s loyalties as they immerse themselves in the unparalleled universe that is Fish Soup.
Casa de las Américas Prize (Winner)
Society of Authors Valle-Inclán Prize (Shortlist)
"García Robayo's prose bristles with restrained energy and a wry humour which captures the disaffection of her characters." --The Times Literary Supplement
"A remarkable genre-bending effort." --The Guardian
"[Fish Soup] is a gorgeous, blackly humorous look into the lives of Colombians struggling to find their place in society, both at home and abroad." --Publishers Weekly, starred review
"An evocative collection that conveys the potency of desire in even the most ordinary lives." --Kirkus
"The tackiness of the Caribbean coast and its discontents are marvellously rendered." --The Times Literary Supplement
"If you're a fan of Ottessa Moshfegh or Melissa Broder, then this is for you." --The Guardian
"García Robayo is building one of the most solid and interesting oeuvres in Latin American literature."" --Juan Cárdenas, author of ORNAMENTAL
"Her stories combine the atmosphere of Desperate Housewives, Hemingway's iceberg theory and a memorable, bittersweet ending."" --Jorge Carrión, author of BOOKSHOPS
"Margarita shows sharp insight into contemporary life. Her voice speaks with surreptitious irony and sophisticated psychological perception. She is the creator of an exceptional poetics of displacement."" --Juan Villoro, author of THE WITNESS
"There are very few writers who can challenge expectations the way Margarita García Robayo does. Margarita is simply one of the best of the new generation that respects, yet no longer identifies with, the Latin American Boom."" --Mariana Enríquez, author of THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE
"This is a text written from within the belly of the beast. (...) One of the most essential books of the year." --Asymptote
"García Robayo's prose is concise and startling, her voice versatile and capable of packing a serious punch." --LA Review of Books
"Subversive, funny, and biting." --Electric Literature
"Full of everyday details that reveal the most vulnerable aspects of feminine subjectivity." --La Nación
"One of the most potent figures of contemporary Latin American literature." --ABC Cultural
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Praise for Margarita García Robayo
Biblioteca de Narrativa Colombiana Prize (Finalist)
"García Robayo writes with caustic insight, brittle humour and a fair whack of cynicism (...) Holiday Heart is brilliant." --The Guardian
"Understated, lyrical, and delivers its insights by means of acute observation. (5 stars)" --The Arts Desk
"Cunningly well achieved." --Irish Times
"Holiday Heart is a poignant and searing story of love ending." --Gutter Magazine
"Coombe's translation brilliantly captures the bite in García Robayo's humour." --iNews
"One of Colombia's greatest living writers." --The Monthly Booking
"Brilliantly dramatises the disjunction between an idealized picture of life like sitting on a sunny beach and the reality of that life like getting sand caught in your teeth." --Lonesome Reader
Best Fiction Books of 2017 --New York Times (Español)
"Darkly funny throughout, this examination of two lives will stay with you long after you read the final words and lay the book down." --Lunate
"Every sentence in the book seems to be written with a scalpel infused with acid. " --Morning Star
"Acute, provocative, concise and raw." --Translating Women
"An incredibly insightful portrayal of a disintegrating marriage...provides a sharp-eyed view of estrangement and personal identity." --Book Riot
"Frightening, alluring, and inescapable." --Books and Bao
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"This multi-centred novel contains everything: death, life and all the stuff in between." --The Guardian
"A sharp and perceptive novel." --Irish Times
"The microscopic precision with which García Robayo delves into the human soul is striking." --El País
"An unsettling novel about uncertainty, memories and fears, solitude, family relationships and hopes for the future." --Diario Popular
"Robayo masterfully constructs a story of family ghosts and memories that put into question what it means to leave behind a country, family and friends for a new place." --Morning Star
"Once again, a Colombian literary star has blended absurdism, realism and great linguistic skill to create a novel that may be neatly packaged but proves to contain multitudes." --Lunate
"Completely engrossing. García Robayo's best yet. " --Sounds & Colours
"Inside the music of Robayo's prose, one encounters an argument about the vigor of personal history, its relentless capacity to emboss the present." --The Believer
"By throwing her characters off their typical paths, García Robayo continues to show readers that she is one of the brightest voices in Latin American literature." --On the Seawall
"The Delivery reveals the fissures, gaps, and spaces of incomprehension that can exist between speakers of the same language." --Full Stop
"This chamber piece, which chronicles the narrator's various procrastinations, succeeds thanks to its voice, its pacing, and its glaring omissions." --Necessary Fiction
"Questions about motherhood, belonging, and exile hang over this quietly unsettling work." --Southwest Review
"García Robayo has written a novel that, avoiding any complacency, situates us in the interstices of identity." --El Mundo
"If for this narrator having a child is like 'resisting extinction' (...), novels like The Delivery fulfil a similar injunction to permanence: not to pass through the world without leaving anything behind." --El País
"An intimate, mature work that confirms Margarita García Robayo as one of the most promising Latin American writers today." --La Razón
"The Colombian writer makes the daily routine of her protagonist seem like a disturbing sequence of events." --Expansión
"A brilliant and exhaustive relationship with language that draws on a search for origins." --El Tiempo
"Thoughts that achieve a sparking lucidity that contrasts with the bewilderment experienced by the main character." --La Nación
"You can't put it down until you find out what happens at the end." --Pagina/12
"The Delivery is one of those novels that mark a before and an after, just as happens to its main character when she manages to open the crate sent by her sister." --Pagina/12
"A book of contained intensity, full of glimpses more than certainties, which confirms the author as one of the leading voices of Latin American fiction." --El Siglo de Torreón
