Isabel is a young Catalan woman from a conventional family. She makes her living cleaning – in a pizza factory at night, and in the home of a middle-aged writer during the day. But she’s hiding a secret life: one filled with multiple sexual partners and dangerous erotic encounters. When she goes to clean the writer’s house, she gradually begins to tell him more about this side of her, until he becomes the confidant to her very darkest secrets. She trusts him – he is the only man she knows who does not try to sleep with her. But as their relationship develops, she becomes more dependent on his advice and understanding, eventually revealing the complicated sadnesses that drive her reckless behaviour.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Praise for The Last Patriarch:
‘El Hachmi’s searing Bildungsroman boldly mixes family and cultural history…truly transgressive
— Catherine Taylor ― The Guardian
Najat El Hachmi’s narrative poise, humour and fresh, unrepressed language turn her painful subject matter into a pleasure to read ― The Independent
Truthful and challenging ― Herald Published On: 2013-08-24
Intrepid … questions the meaning of female liberation ― The Lady Published On: 2013-10-18
With seriousness and humour explores Isabel’s life … El Hachmi is not just bold in her themes, but intelligently and patiently teases out their contradictions. She is a fine writer ― Independent Published On: 2013-10-18
Book Description
Provocative, original, and deeply moving, THE BODY HUNTER Main Edition is a novel about learning how to understand and master our deepest desires.
About the Author
Najat El Hachmi was born in Morocco in 1979. At the age of eight, she emigrated to Catalonia, Spain with her family. Her novel The Last Patriarch [9781846687174] won the prestigious Ramon Llull Prize in 2008. She has published one other book, an autobiographical work called I Too Am Catalan.
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