Overview

In a poverty-stricken neighbourhood wedged between the city and the sea, a father and son struggle to keep their heads above water. Rather than being discouraged by their difficulties and hardship, their response is to come up with increasingly bizarre and imaginative plans in order to get by. Even when a horrifying, macabre event rocks the neighborhood and the locals start to flee, father and son decide to stay put. What matters is staying together.This is a bold, poignant text that juxtaposes a very tender father-son relationship with the son's sexual liberation and a brutal depiction of homophobic violence. Giuseppe Caputo uses delicate – yet electrifying – lyricism and imagery to weave a tale that balances desire, violence, discrimination, love, eroticism and defiance, while evoking with surreal humor the social marginalization of the protagonists as they struggle to keep afloat in a society where there are no safety nets.Like a brightly-lit theme park with its house of horrors, reminiscent in parts of James Baldwin’s Another Country or Virginie Despentes’ Vernon Subutex trilogy, An Orphan World defies the reader to look away, and the reward is an exhilarating carnival ride filled with beauty, compassion and loss.

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9781916465626

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Reviews

Caputo is a blazing new talent in world literature. Everyone should read this book! --Garth Greenwell Gritty...an effortlessly multi-layered plot that challenges the reader to question everything --The Skinny One of the best debut novels I've read this year and it marks Caputo out as one of the most striking new voices coming from Latin America. --Morning Star Caputo writes with his pen on fire. --Books and Bao He's a talent. --Niven Govinden, author of This Brutal House Winner English PEN Translates award

English PEN (Award) A delirious, tender fable. -The Times Literary Supplement Colombian writer Caputo's transfixing debut explores the poverty, sexuality, and community found in a hardscrabble neighborhood....Caputo's arresting novel hits hard. -Publishers Weekly An extraordinary book. (Garth Greenwell) -Literary Hub Caputo is a blazing new talent in world literature. Everyone should read this book! -Garth Greenwell, author of WHAT BELONGS TO YOU He's a talent. -Niven Govinden, author of THIS BRUTAL HOUSE Gritty...an effortlessly multi-layered plot that challenges the reader to question everything. -The Skinny Caputo writes with his pen on fire. -Books and Bao One of the best debut novels I've read this year and it marks Caputo out as one of the most striking new voices coming from Latin America. -Morning Star Caputo tells a difficult story with urgency and a master skill of narration, prose and poetry. It is truly a work of horrific beauty and indulgent joy (or the promise of it). -Wasafiri

"English PEN (Award) ""A delirious, tender fable."" —The Times Literary Supplement ""Colombian writer Caputo’s transfixing debut explores the poverty, sexuality, and community found in a hardscrabble neighborhood….Caputo’s arresting novel hits hard."" —Publishers Weekly ""An extraordinary book. (Garth Greenwell)"" —Literary Hub ""Caputo is a blazing new talent in world literature. Everyone should read this book!"""" —Garth Greenwell , author of WHAT BELONGS TO YOU ""He’s a talent."""" —Niven Govinden , author of THIS BRUTAL HOUSE ""Gritty...an effortlessly multi-layered plot that challenges the reader to question everything."" —The Skinny ""Caputo writes with his pen on fire."" —Books and Bao ""One of the best debut novels I’ve read this year and it marks Caputo out as one of the most striking new voices coming from Latin America."" —Morning Star ""Caputo tells a difficult story with urgency and a master skill of narration, prose and poetry. It is truly a work of horrific beauty and indulgent joy (or the promise of it)."" —Wasafiri"

Author Information

Giuseppe Caputo was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, in 1982. He studied creative writing at New York University, and at the University of Iowa. Also at Iowa, he specialised in gender studies. After being Cultural Director of the Bogotá International Book Festival for many years, Caputo now teaches creative writing at the Instituto Caro Cuervo in Bogotá. An Orphan World is his first novel and it has earned Caputo a place in the 2017 Hay Festival’s Bogotá 39 list of best Latin American writers under 40. Sophie Hughes has translated some of the finest Spanish and Latin American authors at work today, including Enrique Vila-Matas, Rodrigo Hasbún and Laia Jufresa. In 2019 she was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize for her translation of Alia Trabucco Zerán’s The Remainder and in 2018 she was named one of the Arts Foundation 25th anniversary fellows for her contribution to the field of literary translation. Juana Adcock is a Mexican British poet and translator. She works from Spanish into English and viceversa, and has translated authors such as Gabriela Wiener, Hubert Matiúwàa, Julieta Valero, Andrew Motion, Helen Mort and Alexander Hutchison. In 2016 she was named one of the Ten New Voices from Europe by Literary Europe Live for her own work as a poet. She is also known for her multilingual sound and music collaborations.

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