Fate
Jorge Consiglio author Fionn Petch translator Carolina Orloff translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Charco Press
Published:5th Mar '20
Should be back in stock very soon
This novel focuses on a group of characters who are all in different ways endeavouring to take control of their fate. Their desire to lead a genuine existence forces them to confront difficult decisions, and to break out of comfortable routines.Karl and Marina have been together for ten years and have a young son, Simón. Karl is a German-born oboist at Argentina’s national orchestra, and Marina is a meteorologist. On a field trip, she meets fellow researcher Zárate, and what might have been just a fling starts to erode the foundations of her marriage. Then there is Amer, a dynamic and successful taxidermist. At a group therapy session for smokers, Amer falls for the younger Clara. While the relationship between Karl and Marina disintegrates, the love story between Amer and Clara is just beginning – or is it already at an end? One of Argentina’s leading contemporary writers, Jorge Consiglio portrays the inner worlds of these characters through the minute details of their everyday lives, laying bare their strivings and their frustrations with a wry gaze, and seeking in this close-up texture a deeper truth.
"A moving testament to the beauty and banality of human relationships." —Publishers Weekly
"A masterpiece that refuses to stay still." —Culture Trip
"Fate could be likened to a pointillist painting by Seurat, with each dab of colour and each descriptive passage contributing to what is finally a beautifully structured and brilliantly shimmering whole." —New York Magazine (The Strategist UK)
"In the realm of fiction, an author has total authority over their characters, and they can inject interactions with meaning and pattern-play in a way therapists warn us not to in our day to day lives. It takes a particular level of craftsmanship to do this at the level of the sentence, with the effortlessness that Consiglio seamlessly achieves, and to sweep a reader so tenderly into the progress." —White Review
"A muted and unhurried novel that insists on the validity of the imperfect present." —Kirkus
"The beauty of this novel...is that it provides no answers, but many questions. It can be reflected upon, re-read, and reconsidered." —BookBlast
"The language of Fate has teeth and claws." —Books and Bao
"Fate is a rich tapestry of language, a sharp depiction of the vagaries of fate and a thoughtful meditation on the human condition." —The Monthly Booking
"Consiglio’s writing aches with poetry through its attention and complexity." —The Skinny
"Packed full of sensuality and written in fresh, candid prose." —The Quietus
Praise for Jorge Consiglio
"Employing a language that is sharp, concise and visceral, it proves his talent as a natural storyteller and as a social chronicler and poet of some refinement." —Morning Star
"There is a timeless quality to Consiglio’s prose...a storyteller of rare ingenuity." —Splice
"His stories are told with dispassionate realism while being varnished with a surrealist gloss, creating his own in-between style...Occasional poetic turns reminiscent of Pablo Neruda erupt within the narrative." —Culture Trip
"[Consiglio] carves out a singular space by focusing on characters who do not quite have a place of their own." —Full Stop
ISBN: 9781999368463
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
150 pages