Build Your House Around My Body - by Violet Kupersmith (Hardcover)
Similar Products
Products of same category from the store
All
Product info
<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>"In 1986, the teenage daughter of a wealthy family gets lost in an abandoned rubber plantation while fleeing her angry father and is forever changed by the experience. In 2009, pressed into a dangerous scheme by a former lover, a woman captures a rare two-headed cobra. And in 2011, a young, unhappy American living in Saigon with her sort-of boyfriend, disappears without a trace. Over the course of the novel, the fates of these three women will lock together in an exhilarating series of nested narratives. Along the way, we meet a young boy sent to a boarding school in the mountains for the mâetis children of French expatriates just before Vietnam declares its independence from colonial rule in 1945; two Frenchmen trying to start a business with the Vietnam War on the horizon; and the employees of the Saigon Spirit Eradication Co., called to investigate strange occurrences in a farmhouse on the edge of a forest. Each new character and timeline brings us one step closer to understanding what binds the three women together, and what happened to Winnie. Written with wit, ambition, and playfulness, this book takes us from sweaty nightclubs to ramshackle zoos, colonial mansions to ex-pat flats, sizzling back-alley street carts to the noisy seats of motorbikes. Spanning over fifty years and barreling toward an unforgettable conclusion, this is a fever dream about possessed bodies and possessed lands, a time-traveling, heart-pounding, border-crossing marvel of a novel"--<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><b>Part puzzle, part revenge tale, part ghost story, this</b> <b>ingenious</b> <b>novel spins half a century of Vietnamese history and folklore into</b> <b>"a thrilling read, acrobatic and filled with verve" (<i>The New York Times</i>). <p/><b>FINALIST FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION'S FIRST NOVEL PRIZE - "Fiction as daring and accomplished as Violet Kupersmith's first novel reignites my love of the form and its kaleidoscopic possibilities."--David Mitchell, author of <i>Cloud Atlas<br></i></b> </b><br><i>Two young women go missing decades apart. Both are fearless, both are lost. And both will have their revenge.</i> <br><b><br>1986</b> The teenage daughter of a wealthy Vietnamese family loses her way in an abandoned rubber plantation while fleeing her angry father and is forever changed. <br><b><br>2011</b> A young, unhappy Vietnamese American woman disappears from her new home in Saigon without a trace. <p/>The fates of these two women are inescapably linked, bound together by past generations, by ghosts and ancestors, by the history of possessed bodies and possessed lands. Alongside them, we meet a young boy who is sent to a boarding school for the <i>métis </i>children of French expatriates, just before Vietnam declares its independence from colonial rule; two Frenchmen who are trying to start a business with the Vietnam War on the horizon; and the employees of the Saigon Spirit Eradication Co., who find themselves investigating strange occurrences in a farmhouse on the edge of a forest. Each new character and timeline brings us one step closer to understanding what binds them all. <p/><i>Build Your House Around My Body</i> takes us from colonial mansions to ramshackle zoos, from sweaty nightclubs to the jostling seats of motorbikes, from ex-pat flats to sizzling back-alley street carts. Spanning more than fifty years of Vietnamese history and barreling toward an unforgettable conclusion, this is a time-traveling, heart-pounding, border-crossing fever dream of a novel that will haunt you long after the last page.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"Violet Kupersmith's eerie and electric debut novel . . . followed me into my days, refusing to release me. . . . This is a big, packed novel. Reading it provides a sensation not unlike riding on a motorbike overloaded with passengers and wares: It careens, it tilts and at times I wondered if it would reach its destination without a crash. But Kupersmith proves herself a fearless driver who revels in the daunting challenge she has set for herself. There are so many ways this novel could have lost its balance; instead, its too-much-ness makes for a thrilling read, acrobatic and filled with verve."<b>--<i>New York Times</i></b> <p/>"Haunting and unforgettable."<b>--<i>Bust</i></b> <p/>"A sensual world that is familiar yet supernatural, populated with a dense web of time-traveling characters . . . dexterous, sensitive storytelling."<b>--<i>Time</i></b> <p/>"A brilliant, sweeping epic that swaps spirits and sheds time like snakeskin, <i> Build Your House Around My Body</i> is a marvel. Thrilling, witty, disturbing, righteous--I won't be able to shut up about how damned awesome this book is. Neither will you."<b>--Paul Tremblay, author of <i>A Head Full of Ghosts</i> and<i> Survivor Song</i></b> <p/>"A heady, gothic, spellbinder of a book."<b>--Kelly Link, author of <i>Get in Trouble</i><br></b><br>"This impressively constructed weave of stories, haunted by the ghosts of history and family, is gorgeous, completely original, and quite disturbing--usually all at the same time. Beware! This book might swallow you up."<b>--Karen Joy Fowler, author of <i>We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves<br></i></b><br>"I loved this epic book--beautiful, brilliant, powerful, and shivery-back-of-the-neck terrifying."<b>--Madeline Miller</b> <p/>"This lush, sultry phantasmagoria of a novel is as playful, hypnotic, and bone-chilling as a cobra rising to strike."<b>--Elisabeth Thomas, author of <i>Catherine House</i><br></b><br>"Violet Kupersmith has elevated the ghost story into an art form. Her intricately plotted, flamboyantly original novel is by turns steamy, grisly, comic, horrific, and touching. This haunting tale will stay with you long after the last page is turned."<b>--Valerie Martin, author of <i>Property </i>and<i> I Give It to You<br></i></b><i><br></i>"A rich and dazzling spectacle . . . that peels back the layers of a haunted Vietnam."<b><i><b><i>--Kirkus Reviews</i></b> <p/></i></b>"[An] exceptional debut. . . . Magic can be both benevolent and monstrous in Kupersmith's work, and here she indelibly illustrates the ways in which Vietnam's legacies of colonialism, war, and violence against women continue to haunt. . . . Surprising and satisfying."<b>--<i>Publishers Weekly</i> (starred review)<br></b><br>"Unsettling and powerful."<b>--<i>BookPage</i></b><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Violet Kupersmith</b> is the author of the short story collection <i>The Frangipani Hotel.</i> She previously taught English with the Fulbright program in the Mekong Delta and was a creative writing fellow at the University of East Anglia. She has lived in Da Lat and Saigon in Vietnam, and currently resides in the United States.
Price History
Cheapest price in the interval: 18.99 on October 22, 2021
Most expensive price in the interval: 18.99 on November 8, 2021
Price Archive shows prices from various stores, lets you see history and find the cheapest. There is no actual sale on the website. For all support, inquiry and suggestion messagescommunication@pricearchive.us