Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
Ariane Koch, born in Basel in 1988, studied fine arts and interdisciplinarity. In addition to novels, she writes theatre and performance texts. Her work has won numerous awards and been performed in places like Basel, Berlin, Cairo, Istanbul and Moscow. Overstaying, her debut novel, won the Swiss Literature Award and the Aspekte Prize for Literature, and is being translated into eight languages. Damion Searls has translated more than fifty books of classic modern literature, including works by Rainer Maria Rilke, Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, Elfriede Jelinek and Jon Fosse. His own writing includes fiction, poetry, criticism, The Inkblots and The Philosophy of Translation, forthcoming.A bizarre and beautiful psychodrama about hospitality, control and domination... Overstaying is a joy to read. It's tautly written, caustically witty, and replete with imaginative insights. I'm already excited to read Koch's second book; she is so perceptive, convincing and poised a writer that it makes you feel grateful that such a talent shares your world
- Luke Kennard, Telegraph
A strange, brilliant fever dream... We might think of global conflicts, identity politics, border policing. But Overstaying refuses to give easy answers... It ought to outlast the current conversation about these issues. Given its intelligence, humour and originality, there's no doubt it will
Financial Times
A short novel of huge ambition... Hypnotic and masterly, this is a book that creates its own world, forcing us to look at our own through altered eyes
- Nina Allan, TLS
Overstaying amazed me
- Jonathan Lethem, author of 'The Fortress of Solitude',
Marvellously surreal... Koch's astutely absurd text underscores just how permeable a self is, and how rife with little deaths and rebirths it is
Frieze
A pinch of Dostoevsky's neuroses, a little Beckett-ish in its absurdity, Sapphic in the generous white spaces between vignettes, and as easy to swallow as applesauce
CN Traveller
Uncanny, bizarre and outlandish, delivered with such charm and wry humour that this brilliant slim book is utterly captivating
The Berliner
It both welcomes and distances the reader, which is a rare feat and may be why the book won prizes in Germany and in Koch's home country of Switzerland. If there's any justice, it should do the same here
- John Self, The Critic
Unforgettable... While Koch seduces the reader with the obvious enigma of the visitor, she also subtly creates a playful twist on a coming-of-age story
The Millions
Better than Kafka, and Kafka was damned good
- Saša Stanišic, author of 'Where You Come From',
Slim, dreamlike, and bizarre-in short, a perfect escape from all you're looking to escape
LitHub, 'Most Anticipated Books of 2024'
Comparing this magnificent first novel to the great Kafka does it no disservice - on the contrary
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Full of dreamlike symbols of loneliness and alienation. Overstaying has the makings of a classic
Die Zeit
An intense, enigmatic - in the best sense of the word - debut of philosophical force
Süddeutsche Zeitung
A brave debut, remarkable in its literary aesthetics
Deutschlandfunk