Awards

• Short-listed for The Bad Sex Award 2006

Overview

Aboard the Titanic, Lobster watches Angelina devour his father, before being plucked out of the aquarium himself. Just as he is put in the boiling pot, the ship hits the iceberg and the pot is thrown to the floor. Lobster survives, with some changes: he finds himself sexually attracted not only to a human, but to the very human who ate his father. He gives her one life-changing orgasm before their tragic separation, following an ugly incident in one of the lifeboats. ""A fable of crustacean love. Our hero is a lobster aboard the Titanic. From his tank, he watches his father being eaten by a pretty girl. Then the boat founders and Lobster escapes. Aboard the sinking ship, Angelina, the girl who ate his dad, knows a brief but shattering moment of physical love with Lobster. Then they are separated. They pine for each other. Angelina tries having sex with another lobster, with disastrous results. Death smells of bay leaves."" -- Sam Leith in The Daily Telegraph ""In terms of abusing the natural world, Lobster by Guillaume Lecasble is in a league of its own. The surrealist tale of a lobster on board the Titanic which finds itself helplessly attracted to a human female, the book hinges on the life-changing orgasm the fishy amorist gives Angelina as the boat sinks in the icy water."" -- Tom Fleming in The Literary Review

Full Product Details

9781915568236

Table of Contents

Reviews

'A brief, bizarre, boiling broth of surrealism, romantic fatalism and slapstick. Not for the squeamish.' Kirkus Reviews 'Agreeably unsettling, and avoiding the obvious turns, twists, and resolutions, Lobster has something of the classical fairy tale to it - the kind which did without the easy or heavy-handed moralizing. It is, however, an adult tale, in every sense, a mature kind of fiction and a clever piece of invention - the kind of novel we see far too little of.' M.A.Orthofer in The Complete Review 'With its fortuitous encounters and near misses, its moments of sweet affection and suicidal despair, Lecasble's tale manages to be both tender and appalling.' Publishers Weekly

Author Information

Guillaume Lecasble was born in 1954. He started painting at the age of 19 and had a first solo exhibition eleven years later. From his art work - and particularly the portrait of a chorus of monks - he became inspired to experiment with new approaches to film making. Various short films yielded a pair of characters (bonhomme & bonfemme) who then reincarnated themselves in a series of highly praised books for children. Painting continues to inspire and accompany his written and cinematographic work. Lobster, his first novel, was published to critical acclaim in France in 2003. Polly McLean grew up in Paris and Oxford. She is a freelance translator whose latest credits include a novel by Yasmina Traboulsi for Blackamber Books, and a history of that well-known liberal agreement, the Entente Cordiale. She is particularly interested in translating erotic literature.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available