Widespread review coverage in major Australian and New Zealand newspapers such as Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Courier Mail, West Australian, Dominion Post, The Press and NZ Herald Widespread review coverage in major Australian and New Zealand general and literary publications such as The Big Issue, NZ Listener, Kill Your Darlings and North & South Widespread review coverage in literary magazines such as Australian Book Review, Monthly and Kill Your Darlings Widespread review coverage on blogs such as LiteraryMinded and Crikey's Liticism Interviews in major newspapers such as the Sydney Morning Herald/Age Extensive radio interviews across Australian and New Zealand to coincide with author tour Author tour confirmed for May 2013 in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Sydney and Melbourne Early reading copies available to the trade Budget for bookseller catalogues Advertising in literary publications such as the ABR and The Monthly Social media campaign Featured in Text's newsletter and website
The Last of the Vostyachs won two literary prizes in Italy: The Premio Campiello and The Premio Stresa.
Paperback
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
- Widespread review coverage in major Australian and New Zealand newspapers such as Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Courier Mail, West Australian, Dominion Post, The Press and NZ Herald Widespread review coverage in major Australian and New Zealand general and literary publications such as The Big Issue, NZ Listener, Kill Your Darlings and North & South Widespread review coverage in literary magazines such as Australian Book Review, Monthly and Kill Your Darlings Widespread review coverage on blogs such as LiteraryMinded and Crikey's Liticism Interviews in major newspapers such as the Sydney Morning Herald/Age Extensive radio interviews across Australian and New Zealand to coincide with author tour Author tour confirmed for May 2013 in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Sydney and Melbourne Early reading copies available to the trade Budget for bookseller catalogues Advertising in literary publications such as the ABR and The Monthly Social media campaign * Featured in Text's newsletter and website
The Last of the Vostyachs won two literary prizes in Italy: The Premio Campiello and The Premio Stresa.
Description
An inventive tale of a long-lost language and culture, forgotten but for a single man.
He felt a shiver run down his spine when he heard the lateral fricative with labiovelar overlay ring out loud and clear in the chill air…It set forgotten follicles stirring in the soft part of his brain, disturbing liquids that had lain motionless for centuries, arousing sensations not made for men of the modern world.
Ivan grew up in a gulag and held his dying father in his arms. Since then he has not uttered a word. He has lived in the wild, kept company only by the wolves and his reindeer-skin drum. He is the last of an ancient Siberian shamanic tribe, the Vostyachs, and the only person left on earth to know their language.
But when the innocent wild man Ivan is found in the forests by the lively linguist Olga, his existence proves to be a triumphant discovery for some, a grave inconvenience for others. And the reader is transported into the heart of the wildest imagination.
Awards
Long-listed for The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2012 (UK)
Critic Reviews
“'When I reviewed New Finnish Grammar , I edged towards using the word genius to describe Marani. I'm doing so again now.' Guardian”
'Part mystery, part Scandinavian-noir, with a splash of 12 Monkeys.'
Readings Monthly
‘When I reviewed New Finnish Grammar, I edged towards using the word “genius” to describe Marani. I’m doing so again now.’ Guardian
‘A roller-coaster ride whisking the reader alternatively through zones of darkness, hilarity, cruelty, tenderness, the near-lubricious…There’s something for almost everyone.’ -- PEN
‘A riot of comic unpredictability.’ Times Literary Supplement
'For Italian fiction in translation, there is nobody more important being published today. This is a beautiful, intelligently funny novel.'
Italia
'Landry is an adept translator, of the kind who likes to make it seem that the book has all along been written in English.' London Review of Books
Marani's fascination with languages, and with the silencing of language in particular, permeates this captivating work...Part murder mystery set in the Arctic, part study of language, part Norse saga—though spiced with its own modernity, magic and humour—and part evocation of the Arctic wilderness, Marani's novel shows his extraordinary skills and erudition.' Sydney Morning Herald / Age
About the Author
Diego Marani was born in Ferrara in 1959. He has worked as a translator and policy officer for the European Commission and has written several other novels, collections of essays and short stories. Marani’s earlier novel, New Finnish Grammar, was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Award and the Best Translated Book Award.
Judith Landry won the 2012 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize for her translation of New Finnish Grammar.
Product Details
Returns
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.
