Vladivostok Circus

Elisa Shua Dusapin (trans. Aneesa Abbas Higgins)

‘Frames human understanding as a series of leaps and falls, as we swoop, somersault, twist, and turn to make ourselves understood. Dusapin has perfected the art of these spare, inward-looking novellas.’

Financial Times

‘Dusapin’s beautiful prose, with imagery both metallic and mineral, insinuates its way towards a delicate empathy between the generations, as well as examining the confusion that comes with dual nationality, and the lifetime loss that is exile.’

Irish Times

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‘A quiet, meditative story of shared endeavour. Though gentle, its emotional complexity means it is Dusapin’s most accomplished work yet … Dusapin deftly conveys the way intimacy and routine are established, physical space shared, and how moments of creativity and connection occur … Vladivostok Circus is about people trying to work and create together and the solidarity and friendship that shared endeavour can foster.’

The Guardian

‘Rich, immersive, psychologically astute — it’s a star performance all round.’

Marie Claire, ‘The best new books of 2024’

Praise for The Pachinko Parlour:

‘A book full of delicacy and melancholy … sprinkled with meticulous touches.’

Le Monde

Praise for The Pachinko Parlour:

‘A melancholic exploration of identity and belonging, The Pachinko Parlour is a beautifully told story of one woman trying to tether herself to something.’

Kasim Ali, author of Good Intentions

Praise for Winter in Sokcho:

‘Enigmatic, beguiling … This finely crafted debut explores topics of identity and heredity in compelling fashion. In its aimless, outsider protagonist there are echoes of Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman.’

Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times

Praise for Winter in Sokcho:

‘Mysterious, beguiling, and glowing with tender intelligence, Winter in Sokcho is a master class in tension and atmospherics, a study of the delicate, murky filaments of emotion that compose a life. Dusapin has a rare and ferocious gift for pinning the quick, slippery, liveness of feeling to the page: her talent is a thrill to behold.’

Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine

Praise for Winter in Sokcho:

‘A vivid, tactile, often claustrophobic, and gorgeously written novel. An absolute joy from beginning to end.’

Lara Williams, author of Supper Club

**Praise for The Pachinko Parlour:**‘Dusapin explores the blurrier borders of language … the novel is a slow, meditative portrait of one woman finding herself, as well as a moving reflection on language’s capacity to divide us from others — and ourselves … while Dusapin’s prose is spare, it is not minimal at all. Her descriptions are lovely and moody, often bouncing obliquely off Claire’s inner state … Of course, much of the pleasure of reading … in English comes from Higgins’s delicate translation. It’s a formidable challenge to translate a novel that deals so centrally with language, and Higgins manages to call the reader’s attention to both the beauty of the writing and the linguistic and cultural switching that demands so much of Claire’s energy.’

Lily Meyer, The New York Times

Tonight is the opening night. There are birds perched everywhere, on the power lines, the guy ropes, the strings of light that festoon the tent … when I think of all those little bodies suspended between earth and sky, it makes me smile to remind myself that for some of them, their first flight begins with a fall.

Nathalie arrives at the circus in Vladivostok, Russia, fresh out of fashion school in Geneva. She is there to design the costumes for a trio of artists who are due to perform one of the most dangerous acts of all: the Russian Bar.

As winter approaches, the season at Vladivostok is winding down, leaving the windy port city empty as the performers rush off to catch trains, boats, and buses home; all except the Russian bar trio and their manager. They are scheduled to perform at a festival in Ulan Ude, just before Christmas.

What ensues is an intimate and beguiling account of four people learning to work with and trust one another. This is a book about the delicate balance that must be achieved when flirting with death in such spectacular fashion, set against the backdrop of a cloudy ocean and immersing the reader in Dusapin’s trademark dreamlike prose.

Financial Times

Irish Times

View all reviews

The Guardian

‘Rich, immersive, psychologically astute — it’s a star performance all round.’

Marie Claire, ‘The best new books of 2024’

Praise for The Pachinko Parlour:

‘A book full of delicacy and melancholy … sprinkled with meticulous touches.’

Le Monde

Praise for The Pachinko Parlour:

‘A melancholic exploration of identity and belonging, The Pachinko Parlour is a beautifully told story of one woman trying to tether herself to something.’

Kasim Ali, author of Good Intentions

Praise for Winter in Sokcho:

Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times

Praise for Winter in Sokcho:

Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine

Praise for Winter in Sokcho:

‘A vivid, tactile, often claustrophobic, and gorgeously written novel. An absolute joy from beginning to end.’

Lara Williams, author of Supper Club

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 210mm × 135mm

Extent:240pp

ISBN (13):9781761380853

RRP:$27.99

Pub date:3 Apr 2024

Rights Held: ANZ

High-res cover:Download Image

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AUTHOR

Elisa Shua Dusapin

Elisa Shua Dusapin was born in France in 1992 and raised in Paris, Seoul, and Switzerland. Her first novel, Winter in Sokcho, was published in 2016 to wide acclaim and was awarded the Prix Robert Walser, the Prix Régine Desforges, and, after its translation into English, the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature.

TRANSLATOR

Aneesa Abbas Higgins

Aneesa Abbas Higgins has translated books by Elisa Shua Dusapin, Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Ali Zamir, and Nina Bouraoui. Seven Stones by Vénus Khoury-Ghata was shortlisted for the Scott-Moncrieff Translation Prize, and both A Girl Called Eel by Ali Zamir and What Became of the White Savage by François Garde won PEN Translates awards.