Wow! eBook
Tomorrow Pamplona
Author(s): Jan van Mersbergen (Author), Laura Watkinson (Translator)
- Publisher: Peirene Press Ltd
- Publication Date: 6 Jun. 2011
- Language: English
- Print length: 180 pages
- ISBN-10: 0956284043
- ISBN-13: 9780956284044
Book Description
A professional boxer and a family man meet by chance on a journey to the Pamplona Bull Run. The boxer is fleeing an unhappy love. The father hopes to escape his dull routine. Both know that, eventually, they will have to return to the place each calls ‘home’. ——- Why Peirene chose to publish this book: ‘I adore the deceptive simplicity of this story. On the surface, the fast moving plot, the short sentences, the ordinary words make the text as straightforward as punches in a boxing match. But just as physical conflict stirs deep emotions, so too does this book as it focuses on a single question: how do you choose between flight and fight?’ Meike Ziervogel, Publisher
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Inevitably, the Pamplona festival evokes Ernest Hemingway. Van Mersbergen avoids Hemingway’s contagious style with dexterity. Instead, he parodies Hemingway’s rather limited ideas on how a man of action should live. … No “grace under pressure”. Rather, Danny and Robert, both alienated, replace normal feelings with their different obsessions.” –The Independent
“An impressive work from a leading Dutch writer.” –Daily Mail
“Flawlessly translated from Dutch … A book that is likely to divide readers, possibly along gender lines.” –Financial Times
“As he tracks back and forth between the dual narratives, moving inexorably to the double climax, van Mersbergen skilfully builds emotional intensity until the point when the boxer and bulls’ fury are finally unleashed.” –The Independent on Sunday
“This is an intriguing and intricate gem of a novel … van Mersbergen’s tightly controlled prose skilfully conveys the overriding sense of repressed emotion and sheer physicality that drive a compelling and complex story.”
–Lancashire Evening Post
About the Author
Jan van Mersbergen, born 1971, stands at the forefront of new Dutch writing. He has completed five novels. His concise and tense style has earned him critical acclaim and a wide readership. Tomorrow Pamplona was first published in Dutch in 2007 and has already been translated into German and French.
