Humiliation: Stories - Softcover

Flores, Paulina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1948226243 ISBN 13: 9781948226240

Publisher: Catapult, 2019

Synopsis

“Humiliation is a brilliant book that captures the volatility of misunderstandings, the moment when failures matter less than the need to share them.” ―Alejandro Zambra, author of Multiple Choice

The nine mesmerizing stories in Humiliation, translated from the Spanish by Man Booker International Prize finalist Megan McDowell, present us with a Chile we seldom see in fiction: port cities marked by poverty and brimming with plans of rebellion; apartment buildings populated by dominant mothers and voyeuristic neighbors; library steps that lead students to literature, but also into encounters with other arts―those of seduction, self-delusion, sabotage.

In these pages, a father walks through the scorching heat of Santiago’s streets with his two daughters in tow. Jobless and ashamed, he takes them into a stranger’s house, a place that will become the site of the greatest humiliation of his life. In an impoverished fishing town, four teenage boys try to allay their boredom during an endless summer by translating lyrics from the Smiths into Spanish using a stolen dictionary. Their dreams of fame and glory twist into a plan to steal musical instruments from a church, an obsession that prevents one of them from anticipating a devastating ending. Meanwhile a young woman goes home with a charismatic man after finding his daughter wandering lost in a public place. She soon discovers, like so many characters in this book, that fortuitous encounters can be deceptions in disguise.

Themes of pride, shame, and disgrace―small and large, personal and public―tie the stories in this collection together. Humiliation becomes revelation as we watch Paulina Flores’s characters move from an age of innocence into a world of conflicting sensations.

About this title

About the Author

PAULINA FLORES was born in Chile in 1988. Humiliation is her first book. In its Spanish-language editions, it won the Roberto Bolaño Prize, the Circle of Art Critics Prize, the Municipal Literature Prize, and was selected as one of the ten best books of the year by the newspaper El País.

MEGAN McDOWELL has translated many contemporary authors from Latin America and Spain, including Alejandro Zambra, Samanta Schweblin, Mariana Enríquez, Gonzalo Torné, Lina Meruane, Diego Zuñiga, and Carlos Fonseca. Her translations have been published in The New Yorker, Tin House, The Paris Review, Harper's Magazine, McSweeney's, Words Without Borders, and Vice, among others. Her translation of Alejandro Zambra’s novel Ways of Going Home won the 2013 English PEN Award for writing in translation, and her English version of Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin was short-listed for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.

Review

Praise for Humiliation

Paperback Paris, 1 of 12 New Books You'll Want to Bring Outside This Season

"Flores’s strong debut collection provides an intimate look at characters in a Chile brimming with desperation and misfortune . . . Readers see characters struggling with failures, job loss, divorce, missing parents, and poverty . . . Flores’s intense stories are tied together with dark, palpable emotion, portraying characters trapped in circumstances beyond their control. This is a challenging, impressive collection." ––Publishers Weekly

"Flores has won several prizes in her native Chile, and it's not hard to see why: Her prose (deftly translated by McDowell) is fluid and assured . . . This collection marks the arrival of an interesting young writer." ––Kirkus Reviews

"If reading can feel like a hand reaching out and taking yours (as Alan Bennett memorably put it), it’s still rare to encounter a debut with a grip this sure. Young Chilean writer Paulina Flores leads you with such cool confidence through her nine stories that I can’t wait to follow wherever she goes next . . . It feels particularly timely with the current protests led by young people in Chile over inequality and living standards . . . There’s a masterly steadiness to her writing: no flash or dash, but neat psychological insight and understated, sometimes drily funny storytelling. There are also some killer twists." ––Holly Williams, The Guardian

"Chilean writer Flores’ debut short story collection has garnered critical acclaim in its Spanish-language edition, winning several awards, including the Roberto Bolaño Prize. Now McDowell presents an agile translation . . . With conflicts personal and communal in a land in the grip of tyranny, Flores dramatizes difficult situations vividly specific and resonantly universal." ––Booklist

"Until the protests, nobody outside of Chile was talking about how one percent of its inhabitants take home one third of the income generated in the entire country. The fearless, clear-eyed stories of Paulina Flores offer a portal into what living in that extreme inequality means." ––Idra Novey, Electric Literature, Recommended Reading

"Paulina Flores deftly captures our startling humanity; there's awe and dread in these pages―but there's joy, too, fleeting and overwhelming. The worlds she crafts in Humiliation are our worlds, in all their terror and amazement." ―Bryan Washington, author of Lot

"Expertly translated into English by Megan McDowell, Humiliation heralds the arrival of a powerful new voice in international literature. Flores has her finger on the pulse of modernity―a writer to watch." ––Scott Neuffer, trampset

"Humiliation is an impressive debut, with McDowell providing her usual excellent work, allowing the reader to experience the tone of dignity and suppressed hurt that pervades most of the pieces. It can make for sobering reading at times, yet these aren’t characters that demand pity." ––Tony's Reading List

"I was so captivated by the manner in which Flores’ stories unfolded at the strangest corners of the narrative, staggering her reader from its blindspot like a bolt from the blue. Written with the possessive, disquieting calm of contemporaries like Catherine Lacey and Richard Chiem, Humiliation is a dazzling debut from a woman within full command of her craft." ––Paris Close, Paperback Paris

“Humiliation is a brilliant book that captures the volatility of misunderstandings, the moment when failures matter less than the need to share them.” ―Alejandro Zambra, author of Multiple Choice

"An incredible storyteller. Paulina Flores has a knack for laying bare those fragile, often unarticulated, often hard-to-pin-down emotions children hold for their parents. I’m not surprised Humiliation has already been rewarded with so many prizes." ―Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, author of Kintu

"The magic of Paulina Flores’s writing lies in placing us in that critical moment when everything is about to change, yet everything seems still. Humiliation is a finely tuned literary high-wire act if ever there was one." ―Carlos Fonseca, author of Colonel Lágrimas

“A debut that marks the arrival of a powerful figure in Chilean letters . . . We must celebrate it wholeheartedly.” ―Antonio Masoliver Ródenas, Cultura|s, La Vanguardia

“Every once in a while one encounters a new voice and thinks: they will last . . . Twelve months from now, Humiliation will still be one of the best books of the year.” ―Javier Rodríguez Marcos, El País

“Fiction that is as alive as Chekov’s and as vibrant as Munro’s.” ―Carlos Pardo, Babelia

“Nine perfect stories that form an extraordinary collection.” ―Aloma Rodríguez, Letras Libres

“While Paulina Flores’s approach is radically political, her stories explore a world of nuance and complexity, brought to life through the author’s relentless quest for the humanity in each of her characters.” ―Lorena G. Maldonado, El Español

“The great surprise of contemporary Chilean letters descends onto Spain, endorsed by Alejandro Zambra, with a brilliant and daring collection of stories.” ―Inés Martín Rodrigo, ABC

“With elegance, strength, and the eye of a hunter, Paulina Flores writes as though she’s lived twice as long as her age.” ―Karina Sainz Borgo, Vozpópuli

“Some of the characters call to mind Lorrie Moore’s early books.” ―Diario Ahora

“Flores’s style is minimalist and sparse, deprived of artificiality, aiming straight at the heart.” ―Libros y Literatura

“Paulina Flores’s vision is unique and, like only good literature can, it will confront, disturb, and dazzle you.” ―Mujer Hoy

“Stories through which life flows with astonishing ease.” ―Ramón Rozas, Librújula

“A work that is as original as it is strong, as it is delicate.” ―Gema Begega, TenMag

About this edition

• Publisher: Catapult
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1948226243
• ISBN 13: 9781948226240
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272