The Pets - Softcover

Ólafsson, Bragi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1940953294 ISBN 13: 9781940953298

Publisher: Open Letter, 2015

Synopsis

"Dark, scary, and unbelievably funny."—Los Angeles Times

"The best short novel I've read this year. . . .Small, dark, and hard to put down, The Pets may be a classic in the literature of small enclosed spaces."—Barnes & Noble Review

Back in Reykjavik after a vacation in London, Emil Halldorsson is waiting for a call from a beautiful girl, Greta, that he met on the plane ride home, and he's just put on a pot of coffee when an unexpected visitor knocks on the door. Peeking through a window, Emil spies an erstwhile friend—Havard Knutsson, his one-time roommate and current resident of a Swedish mental institution—on his doorstep, and he panics, taking refuge under his bed and hoping the frightful nuisance will simply go away.

Havard won't be so easily put off, however, and he breaks into Emil's apartment and decides to wait for his return—Emil couldn't have gone far; the pot of coffee is still warming on the stove. While Emil hides under his bed, increasingly unable to show himself with each passing moment, Havard discovers the booze, and he ends up hosting a bizarre party for Emil's friends, and Greta.

An alternately dark and hilarious story of cowardice, comeuppance, and assumed identity, the breezy and straightforward style of The Pets belies its narrative depth, and disguises a complexity that grows with every page.

Bragi Ólafsson is the author of several books of poetry and short stories, and four novels, including Time Off, which was nominated for the Icelandic Literature Prize in 1999 (as was The Pets), and Party Games, for which Bragi received the DV Cultural Prize in 2004. The Ambassador, available from Open Letter, was a finalist for the 2008 Nordic Literature Prize and received the Icelandic Bookseller's Award as best novel of the year. Bragi is one of the founders of the publishing company Smekkleysa (Bad Taste), and has translated Paul Auster's City of Glass into Icelandic. He is also a former bass player with The Sugarcubes, the internationally successful pop group that featured Bjürk as the lead vocalist.

Janice Balfour studied literature and Italian at the University of Iceland. In addition to Bragi Ólafsson, she has translated two collections of short stories by Gydir Elíasson.

About this title

About the Author:

Bragi Ólafsson is the author of several books of poetry and short stories, and four novels, including Time Off, which was nominated for the Icelandic Literature Prize in 1999 (as was The Pets), and Party Games, for which Bragi received the DV Cultural Prize in 2004. The Ambassador, available from Open Letter, was a finalist for the 2008 Nordic Literature Prize and received the Icelandic Bookseller's Award as best novel of the year. Bragi is one of the founders of the publishing company Smekkleysa (Bad Taste), and has translated Paul Auster's City of Glass into Icelandic. He is also a former bass player with The Sugarcubes, the internationally successful pop group that featured Bjürk as the lead vocalist.

Janice Balfour studied literature and Italian at the University of Iceland. In addition to Bragi Ólafsson, she has translated two collections of short stories by Gydir Elíasson.

Review:

"Icelandic novelist Ólafsson's English-language debut is part Beckettian or even Kafkaesque black comedy, part existentialist novel in the Paul Auster mode, and part locked-room mystery in which the murderee is alive and well and hiding in the bedroom ... Dark, strange, elusive, compelling and oddly charming."—Kirkus Reviews

"Delightfully funny and unexpectedly complex, The Pets introduces American readers to a fresh voice and perspective..."—Larissa Kyzer, The L Magazine

"The best short novel I've read this year ... Small, dark, and hard to put down, The Pets may be a classic in the literature of small enclosed spaces — a distinguished genre that includes "The Metamorphosis," No Exit, and a fair amount of Beckett."—Barnes and Noble Review

"The Narrator ... is intelligent, often witty, a bit wounded ... in a word sympathetic. Overall, the book glitters and gleams, a clear, laughing glacial stream."—Sean Lovelace, New Pages

"The indispensable Rochester publisher Open Letter released Bragi's first novel rendered into English, The Pets, translated beautifully by Janice Balfour, in October of last year ... if you were building an argument for the true rock novel being as unselfconscious about rock as possible, The Pets could be Exhibit A. More than most fiction that concerns itself with music, Bragi's novel captures the dark side of rock—paranoia, fear, self-doubt and the cowardice that's sometimes, maybe often, the flip side of rock-star braggadocio."—Michael Schaub, Los Angeles Times

"Eminently readable, The Pets disguises some really interesting sociological questions in a clean, conversational prose style that is, at first glance, deceptively simple."—Aaron Cance, Fiction Writers Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Open Letter
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1940953294
• ISBN 13: 9781940953298
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 157