LUCY ELLMAN

There are three kinds of strike Id recommend: a housework strike, a labour strike, and a sex strike. I cant wait for the first two.Things Are Against Us is the first collection of essays from Booker Prize-shortlisted Lucy Ellmann. Bold, angry, despairing and very, very funny, these essays cover everything from matriarchy to environmental catastrophe to Little House on the Prairie. Ellmann calls for a moratorium on air travel, rages against bras, gives Doris Day and Agatha Christie a drubbing, and pleads for sanity in a world that well, a world that spent four years in the company of Donald Trump, that tremendously sick, terrible, nasty, lowly, truly pathetic, reckless, sad, weak, lazy, incompetent, third-rate, clueless, not smart, dumb as a rock, all talk, wacko, zero-chance lying liar.Things Are Against Us is electric. Its vital. These are essays bursting with energy, and reading them feels like sticking your hand in the mains socket. Lucy Ellmann is the writer we need to guide us through these crazy times.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019 | OBSERVER FICTION PICKS 2019 | THE HERALD FICTION PICKS 2019 | THE IRISH TIMES FICTION PICKS 2019 | SCOTTISH REVIEW OF BOOKS FICTION PICKS 2019 | COSMOPOLITAN FICTION PICKS 2019Latticing one cherry pie after another, an Ohio housewife tries to bridge the gaps between reality and the torrent of meaningless info that is the United States of America. She worries about her children, her dead parents, African elephants, the bedroom rituals of "happy couples", Weapons of Mass Destruction, and how to hatch an abandoned wood pigeon egg. Is there some trick to surviving survivalists? School shootings? Medical debts? Franks n beans?A scorching indictment of Americas barbarity, past and present, and a lament for the way we are sleepwalking into environmental disaster, Ducks, Newburyport is a heresy, a wonderand a revolution in the novel.

It's Christmas Eve in Manhattan. Harrison Hanafan, noted plastic surgeon, falls on his ass. So far, so good. 'Ya can't sit there all day, buddy, looking up people's skirts!' chides a weird gal in a coat like a duvet - Mimi! She kindly conjures for him the miracle of a taxi. Recuperating in his apartment with Schubert, Bette Davis, and a foundling cat, Harrison adds items to his life's work, a List of Melancholy Things (Walmart, puppetry, Velcro, whale eyes, shrimp-eating contests...). But when he receives a dreaded invitation to address his old school, Mimi reappears, with all her curves and chaos. She and Harrison fall emphatically in love. And, as their love-making reaches a whole new kind of climax, the sweet smell of revolution is in the air.

This wonderful romp, packed with martinis, plastic surgery, and the most fabulous parties Manhattan has ever seen follows the romance that blooms in the aftermath of a chance encounter with surgeon of note Harrison Hannifan, and the elusive but alluring Mimi. A glorious book, bringing all the best of a New York romance to life. Neurosis, drama, comedy, but most of all, love. A treat!

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019 | OBSERVER FICTION PICKS 2019 | THE HERALD FICTION PICKS 2019 | THE IRISH TIMES FICTION PICKS 2019 | SCOTTISH REVIEW OF BOOKS FICTION PICKS 2019 | COSMOPOLITAN FICTION PICKS 2019Latticing one cherry pie after another, an Ohio housewife tries to bridge the gaps between reality and the torrent of meaningless info that is the United States of America. She worries about her children, her dead parents, African elephants, the bedroom rituals of "happy couples", Weapons of Mass Destruction, and how to hatch an abandoned wood pigeon egg. Is there some trick to surviving survivalists? School shootings? Medical debts? Franks n beans?A scorching indictment of America's barbarity, past and present, and a lament for the way we are sleepwalking into environmental disaster, Ducks, Newburyport is a heresy, a wonderand a revolution in the novel.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019OBSERVER FICTION PICKS 2019 | THE HERALD FICTION PICKS 2019 | THE IRISH TIMES FICTION PICKS 2019 | SCOTTISH REVIEW OF BOOKS FICTION PICKS 2019 | COSMOPOLITAN FICTION PICKS 2019Latticing one cherry pie after another, an Ohio housewife tries to bridge the gaps between reality and the torrent of meaningless info that is the United States of America. She worries about her children, her dead parents, African elephants, the bedroom rituals of 'happy couples', Weapons of Mass Destruction, and how to hatch an abandoned wood pigeon egg. Is there some trick to surviving survivalists? School shootings? Medical debts? Franks 'n' beans? A scorching indictment of America's barbarity, past and present, and a lament for the way we are sleepwalking into environmental disaster, Ducks, Newburyport is a heresy, a wonder - and a revolution in the novel.

Dot used to think she was perfect, with her pointy nose, pink skin and blonde hair. But now she lives on Abalone Avenue with a husband who chases women and swordfish. And she has a rather icky Fatal Flaw. And the universe doesn''t give a damn! So DOT decides to End It All. Will death be fast? Slow? Embarrasing? But despite her valiant suicide by tea cosy followed by a jaunt to the morgue, Dot wakes up.

El siglo xxi al completo, esa enormidad insoportable, contenido en una cocina de Ohio: tal es la impactante premisa de esta novela imposible, divertida, incomparable y total que nos arrastra como lectores por los rapidos del torrente de lo humano y nos transforma en un ama de casa que cuida de sus hijos, que quiere a su marido, que prepara innumerables tartas y rollos de canela, entre titulares, bebes, dudas, miedos, esperanzas, musicales de Hollywood, bienestar animal, seguros medicos, recetas de chili, preparacionistas, amenazas de pandemia, tiradores activos, recuerdos de la infancia, mascotas, la insuperable ausencia de la madre, de toda madre, asesinatos en masa, hijas adolescentes, cambio climatico, Trump...; en definitiva, inmersa en el incesante relato del presente polifonico y contradictorio que vertebra este mundo de mundos, muchos de ellos irreconciliables, ciegos a la existencia de otros pero condenados a coexistir.Patos, Newburyport es un puzle que se asoma al inagotable galimatias de la cultura estadounidense, y en gran medida de la occidental; un reto colosal; una proeza narrativa de dimensiones epicas; y tambien un desnudo existencial que le ha valido a Lucy Ellmann multitud de premios y que la ha llevado a ser finalista del Premio Booker. Un destilado de lo que somos hoy o, mas bien, quiza, una llamada, una suplica que apunta a lo que podriamos llegar a ser.Lucy Ellmann sido ampliamente reconocida por la critica internacional: no ha dejado indiferente a nadie. La novela se ha comparado con el Ulises de Joyce por su inventiva y creatividad linguistica y tambien con una Mrs. Dalloway de la era digital.

El siglo xxi al completo, esa enormidad insoportable, contenido en una cocina de Ohio: tal es la impactante premisa de esta novela imposible, divertida, incomparable y total que nos arrastra como lectores por los rapidos del torrente de lo humano y nos transforma en un ama de casa que cuida de sus hijos, que quiere a su marido, que prepara innumerables tartas y rollos de canela, entre titulares, bebes, dudas, miedos, esperanzas, musicales de Hollywood, bienestar animal, seguros medicos, recetas de chili, preparacionistas, amenazas de pandemia, tiradores activos, recuerdos de la infancia, mascotas, la insuperable ausencia de la madre, de toda madre, asesinatos en masa, hijas adolescentes, cambio climatico, Trump...; en definitiva, inmersa en el incesante relato del presente ?polifonico y contradictorio? que vertebra este mundo de mundos, muchos de ellos irreconciliables, ciegos a la existencia de otros pero condenados a coexistir. Patos, Newburyport es un puzle que se asoma al inagotable galimatias de la cultura estadounidense, y en gran medida de la occidental; un reto colosal; una proeza narrativa de dimensiones epicas; y tambien un desnudo existencial que le ha valido a Lucy Ellmann multitud de premios y que la ha llevado a ser finalista del Premio Booker. Un destilado de lo que somos hoy o, mas bien, quiza, una llamada, una suplica que apunta a lo que podriamos llegar a ser.