Bar Balto
Faiza Guéne author Sarah Ardizzone translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:30th Nov '17
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Joël, aka 'The Rink' (because his bald patch is shiny enough to skate on), the unpopular owner of the only bar in town has been murdered. There are so many suspects, it's not so much a question of who did kill him as who didn't.
There's Magalie, the temperamental teenager obsessed with Paris Hilton; her troublemaker boyfriend, Tani; Tani's mother, Madame Levi; her unemployed, daytime-TV addicted husband; Yeznig, their younger son, who has learning difficulties but perfect memory recall; and newcomers Ali and Nadia, the Muslim twins struggling to fit in.
As the tension mounts and we're still none the wiser, the ending is as tragic as it is unexpected.
The various monologues very cleverly paint the picture of a day in the life of this deprived society; [it] is very thoroughly and convincingly done... She writes with intelligence and sympathy, with humour and understanding -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *
Engaging... Along with the corpse himself, [the suspects] tell their stories in a series of monologues, and this is where Guène, with the help of an excellent translation by Ardizzone, really shines -- Laura Wilson * Guardian *
One of the most exciting novelists to emerge in recent years * Irish Times *
Brilliantly paced... and utterly distinctive -- Daniel Hahn * Independent *
Guène is praised as a multicultural heroine. And to her credit, she turns stereotypes on their heads; the people of Making-Ends-Meet are an authentic community, whose humanity endears them to us, however gritty or kitsch their veneer * Times Literary Supplement *
ISBN: 9781784707392
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 9mm
Weight: 117g
160 pages