Scala House Press Reviews
Bringing Tony Home Reviews
"In the fine U.S. debut of Sri Lankan filmmaker and author Abeysekara...four contemplative stories offer four middle-aged narrators' childhood reflections, with richly varied results..."—Publishers Weekly
"...magical portraits that, like all the best tales, capture the forgotten details of a place and age."—Michael Ondaatje
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Belonging Reviews
"...unprecedented and breathtaking...Here is a lyric symphony of utterance in the voices of exiles, immigrants, refugees, and expatriates. That Talebi assembled such an extraordinary collection is impressive enough; that she translated most of these poems herself is nothing short of remarkable."—Carolyn Forché
"Here is proof that poetry humanizes: now contemporary Persian culture has a face, and the Persian tongue a voice, for those of us in the English-speaking world, and we are all richer for it."—Martín Espada
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Guarding Hanna Reviews
"...a thoroughly unique black comedy...a delightfully perverse and oddly touching story."— Publishers Weekly
"[Mazzini] has created a bestial protagonist… a gargoyle of a man [who] struggles heroically with his own nature only to find that life has played him one horrific joke."—Village Voice
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Angels Beneath the Water Reviews
Drinking, drugs, crazy driving, all-night conversations, wandering about, violence—all of that...Although the poetics of the writers represented here are quite different, they are united by their constant concern with the status of reality -- on the one hand, completely eroded by doubts, and on the other naively recalled as authenticity, even if only behind a counter, in an anonymous street, or in an apartment block."—From the Introduction
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Alamut Reviews
"An absolute must-have for East European literature shelves, and quite simply a thoroughly compelling novel cover to cover."—Midwest Book Review
"The book's exotic settings are sumptuously described, and the characters are charismatic and complex..."—Seattle Times
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Contact Scala House
PO Box 4518 | Seattle WA 98194 | 206.706.3339 | publisher@scalahousepress.com
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© 2008 Scala House Publishers, LLC. All rights reserved.
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New from the Scala International Literature Series
BRINGING TONY HOME: Stories
With a filmmaker’s unflinching eye for
detail, Sri Lankan filmmaker and writer Tissa Abeysekara offers
four stories that take us on a poignant and sensual journey
through the landscapes of his homeland and youth. Called a
“lost classic” by Michael Ondaatje, the award-winning
title story recounts the near-tragic tale of a young boy who
returns to his old home to find Tony, the beloved dog his family
abandoned when economic circumstances forced them to leave. And
in what Publishers Weekly calls the "collection's
strangest and most remarkable tale," “Hark, The
Moaning Pond: A Grandmother's Tale" offers a
reminiscence of the narrator's relationship with his
grandmother that "unexpectedly blooms into a stunning
reflection on Sri Lanka's mythic past." Abeysekara
evokes the sights and sounds of another time and place with
exquisite detail, making this collection a remarkable, poignant
read. Available November 25.
By Tissa Abeysekara
Price: $14.95 | ISBN: 978-1-55643-757-1 (1-55643-757-9) | 5.5
x 8.5 | 224 pages
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BELONGING: New Poetry by Iranians Around the World
A rich selection of recent poetry by Iranians
living throughout the world. Varying dramatically in style, tone,
and theme, these expertly translated works include erotic
divertissements by Ziba Karbassi, rigorously formal poetry by
Yadollah Royaii, experimental poems by Naanaam, powerful polemics
by Maryam Huleh, and the personal-epic work of Shahrouz Rashid.
Eclectic and accessible, these vibrant poems deepen the often
limited awareness of Iranian identity today by not only
introducing readers to contemporary Iranian poetry, but also
expanding the canon of significant writing in the Persian
language.
Edited by Niloufar Talebi
Price: $18.95 | ISBN: 978-1-55643-712-0 (1-55643-712-9) | 6 x
9 | 256 pages
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GUARDING HANNA
Publishers Weekly calls Guarding Hanna “a
thoroughly unique black comedy ... a delightfully perverse and
oddly touching story.” Best-selling Slovenian novelist and
award-winning screenwriter Miha Mazzini has created a hilarious
and wrenching modern fable and thriller without peer. Badly
deformed with the face "of a prize boar" and a fondness
for Bach, the unnamed narrator is asked by the patriarch of a
Berlin gang to protect the eccentric (and beautiful) Hanna
Woyczik, the sole witness to a crime and whose testimony can save
Maestro. Having never spent more than five minutes alone with any
human being -- never mind a woman -- he quickly finds the basic
tasks of modern life, such as conversing, eating, and shopping
for toilet paper, —insufferable, and within hours of
entering Hanna’s life, the question becomes, “Who is
protecting whom?”
By Miha Mazzini | Translated from the Slovenian by Maja
Vesnak-Limon
Price: $16.95 | ISBN: 978-1-55643-681-9 (1-55643-681-5) | 6 x
9 | 450 pages
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ANGELS BENEATH THE SURFACE: A Selection of Contemporary
Slovenian Fiction
The first collection of Slovenian short stories to
be published in English outside of Slovenia since 1994. These 19
stylistically and thematically varying tales provide a surprising
and sparkling representation of the promise and achievement of a
new generation of Slovenian writers reveal the concerns, quandaries
and aspirations of Slovenia today. Sexual, playful, irreverent, and profoundly Slovenian, Angels Beneath the Surface features remarkably original
works by Miha Mazzini, Maja Novak, Andrej Blatnik, Suzana
Tratnik, and many more of Slovenia's leading writers today.
Edited by Mitja Cander and Tom Priestly
Price: $15.95 | ISBN: 978-1-55643-703-8 (1-55643-703-X) | 6 x
9 | 204 pages
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ALAMUT
Considered by many to be a masterpiece of Slovenian
literature, Alamut tells the tale of the world's first
"assassin" and political terrorist Hasan ibn Sabbah and his brilliant but mad drive to rule the region with a handful elite fighters who are to become his "living daggers." A
bestseller across Europe and translated into 20 languages world
wide, Alamut is as much a prophetic treatise and
political allegory on Osama bin Laden and extremism in all its forms as it is a gripping story of one man’s unmanacled drive to play God and the human price paid
by the innocent to fuel that drive.
By Vladimir Bartol | Translated from the Slovenian by Michael
Biggins
Price: $16.95 | ISBN: 978-1-55643-681-9 (1-55643-681-5) | 6 x
9 | 450 pages
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All Scala House titles available through
your favorite bookstore, Random House distribution, or
Amazon.com.
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