The Polyglot Lovers

by Lina Wolff, Saska Vogel (Translator)

Overview

'Do you have to stare like that?' I asked.
'Think about the actors in porn. They've got no problem showing themselves off.'
'Think about when I broke your nose,' I replied.

Ellinor is thirty-six. She wears soft black sweatpants and a Michelin Man jacket. She fights. Smart and unsentimental, she tries her hand at online dating, only to be stranded by a snowstorm with a literary critic. Cut to Max Lamas, an author who dreams of a polyglot lover, a woman who will understand him—in every tongue. His search takes him to Italy, where he befriends a marchesa whose old Roman family is on the brink of ruin. At the heart of this literary intrigue is a handwritten manuscript that leaves no one unaffected.

The Polyglot Lovers is a fiercely witty and nuanced contribution to feminism in the #metoo era. Pleasure is an elusive thing, love even more so.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781911508458
Publisher:	And Other Stories Publishing
Publication date:	05/02/2019
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Lina Wolff’s debut novel, Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs, published by And Other Stories in 2016, was awarded the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, Sweden’s Vi Magazine Literature Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2013 Swedish Radio Award for Best Novel of the Year. Her second novel, The Polyglot Lovers, won Sweden’s biggest domestic literary prize, the August Prize, as well as the Svenska Dagbladet Prize, and has been translated into seventeen languages. A collection of short stories is forthcoming from And Other Stories in 2020.
Saskia Vogel is an author and translator from Los Angeles, now living in Berlin. Permission, her debut novel, was published in English, Spanish, French and Swedish in March, 2019. She has translated leading Swedish authors such as Karolina Ramqvist, Katrine Marcal, and Lena Andersson. Her translations and writing have appeared in publications such as Granta, Guernica, White Review, The Offing, Paris Review Daily, and The Quietus.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/18/2019

The edifice of male genius is annihilated in this galvanizing novel from Wolff (Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs). An online date brings Ellinor, whose lone passion is her village’s fight club, to the home of a Stockholm literary critic named Ruben. He shows her a manuscript that a novelist acquaintance, Max, asked him to read (there is only a single copy). Shortly afterward, they have sex, which turns violent, and Ellinor burns the manuscript as revenge. As a toxic symbiosis sets in between the unlikely pair, Wolff delves into the sordid affair that precipitated the manuscript’s creation. After sleeping with a suicidal receptionist, Max dismisses her as “too old, too inhibited, and too boring.” The woman curses him, prompting Max to seek redemption by authoring a new book. For inspiration, he heads to Italy and seduces the matriarch of a declining aristocratic family. His work is only interrupted by the arrival of the woman’s daughter, Claudia, who puts an end to the manipulative romance in exhilarating fashion. Wolff orchestrates her divergent plots into riveting harmony, but more striking is the audacity with which she reveals Max and Ruben’s reckless egoism. “I’m an autodidact in male devastation,” Claudia declares before sticking the final pin in Max’s inflated persona. Wolff’s novel proves the necessity of cultivating such a specialty. Firing on all cylinders from beginning to end, this story pulses with intellect and vitality unmatched by the literary barons it deposes. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Wolff’s prose has a quality of ‘otherness’ entirely in keeping with the surreal atmosphere of the novel. This strange, provocative debut sits well alongside the work of Roxane Gay, Katherine Angel, Maggie Nelson, Zoe Pilger and Miranda July . . . a cool, clever and fierce addition to the canon of modern feminist literature.” Sarah Perry, The Guardian

"The Polyglot Lovers is storytelling as a martial arts combination move, delivered with precision, style and glee." Sjón

"whip-smart and deliciously cynical ... smart, funny, and sad in turns" – Kirkus Reviews

"Lina Wolff is one of my favourite writers of our time. From apparently innocuous starting points, she weaves the darkness into her stories and lets men expose themselves as pitiable when they thought they were being witty and cynical. Her writing detonates just when you are smiling calmly." Yuri Herrera

“I loved The Polyglot Lovers by Lina Wolff (translated by Saskia Vogel), a funny, biting, and exhilaratingly shifty novel about literary revenge and the male ego.” - Gabe Habash

"Mr. Houellebecq’s books diagnose the soullessness of contemporary liberal democracies, where people futilely seek meaning for their lives in pornographic sex. The Polyglot Lovers shifts the focus from Mr. Houellebecq’s destructive men to the women who are both victims of and accomplices to the cycle of narcissism. In Ms. Wolff’s telling, intellectuals—the writers and theorists who wax poetically about falling in love—are the worst of the abusers." Sam Sacks, ‘Fiction Chronicle’, Wall Street Journal

"The edifice of male genius is annihilated in this galvanizing novel from Wolff…Firing on all cylinders from beginning to end, this story pulses with intellect and vitality unmatched by the literary barons it deposes." Book of the Week, Publishers Weekly

"Wolff upsets the applecart, mercilessly mocking male hegemony and skewering literary pretensions. What could have been angry and strident is instead caustic and mischievous: both a bracing wind and a breath of fresh air. Wolff’s constant supply of fire, bite and wit are compelling forces." Malcolm Forbes, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

"A highly enjoyable absurdist comedy about love and desperation." Joanna, Kavenna, The Guardian

"The edifice of male genius is annihilated in this galvanizing novel from Wolff. [...] Wolff orchestrates her divergent plots into riveting harmony, but more striking is the audacity with which she reveals Max and Ruben’s reckless egoism. 'I’m an autodidact in male devastation,' Claudia declares before sticking the final pin in Max’s inflated persona. Wolff’s novel proves the necessity of cultivating such a specialty. Firing on all cylinders from beginning to end, this story pulses with intellect and vitality unmatched by the literary barons it deposes." Publishers Weeklystarred review

“A filmic offering . . . channelling the spirit of Pedro Almodóvar. A thoroughly invigorating novel.” Lucy Scholes, The Independent

"Like Virginie Despentes and Elfriede Jelinek, Lina Wolff stares the reader right in the eyes and speaks in a voice uniquely her own: The Polyglot Lovers is clear, stark, devastating." Joanna Walsh

”The Swedish author of Bret Easton Ellis and Other Dogs enjoys nothing more than savaging the myths of male authorship. Here she lays into notions of male genius, as her protagonist, Ellinor, finds herself entangled with a literary critic who is fixated on a narcissistic author who is in turn obsessed with real-life enfant terrible of French letters, Michel Houellebecq." Ángel Gurría-Quintana, Financial Times

"Wolff’s novel raises the following questions: how do we define literary genius, and who do we allow to define it for us?" Anna Vilner, The Arkansas International

"The Polyglot Lovers'blithe disregard for social norms and finer feelings is exhilarating; it’s pitiless and scathingly funny." Lee Langley, The Spectator

"The Polyglot Lovers is a quiet rapture - unsparing, startling, mesmeric, and told with the soberest of grins." Yelena Moskovich, The TLS

"The Polyglot Lovers is an amusing take on modern life (literary and otherwise) and relationships between the sexes. All in all it makes for an interesting polychromatic fiction, a surprisingly ebullient story—carried along nicely by Wolff's entertaining and easygoing presentation—in a cleverly structured novel, its three separate parts neatly coming together by the end." Michael Orthofer, The Complete Review

"A sharp-eyed, sometimes surreal, often funny take on male-female power dynamics." Mary Ellen Quinn, Booklist

"Keep an eye out for this one: The Polyglot Lovers is one of those rare birds that is both smart as hell and, in the parlance of our times, 'pace-y." Heather Cleary

“It’s been a long time since I read something this unique, seething, wilful.” Svenska Dagbladet

“What a novel! I’m totally charmed! I was completely absorbed by The Polyglot Lovers. . . it's really, really fabulous. Every sentence is great. [This] is a book to read and discover and read over and over again.” Borås Tidning

“Dizzying . . . Lina Wolff has written a many-voiced, meandering, feminist, arresting and rather provocative novel.” Kulturnytt, Sweden Radio

“Wolff has written a kind of blackened, heart-rending satire on gender roles, in which the tempo of the pacily inventive – and downright gorgeous – prose complicates, enlivens and plays with the eloquent lovers she’s taken it upon herself to portray.” Kristofer Folkhammar, Aftonbladet

“You know when a novel is so thrilling that you just don’t want it to end? That’s what it was like reading Lina Wolff’s third book The Polyglot Lovers. I have high expectations . . . and yet they were surpassed.” Sydsvenskan

Bookseller endorsements

"The Polyglot Lovers is electric – it crackles with wit, ferocity and intelligence. We are lucky to have Lina Wolff." Elizabeth Perry, City Books, Hove

"The Polyglot Lovers is a testament to the temperamental nature of love and power, and the complexities that come with asserting one’s own agency. This book is proof that irreverence and wit have a place in feminist theory. I was captivated from page one." Cristina Rodriguez, Deep Vellum Books, Dallas, TX

"Reading The Polyglot Lovers, I was struck once again by just how sharp a writer Wolff is. There are few writers out there capable of besting her. If she has a kindred spirit in contemporary fiction, it's Ottessa Moshfegh, with whom she shares a darkly funny and unflinching sensibility." Gary Perry, Foyles, London

"The Polyglot Lovers is an audacious and often very funny reckoning with the ways men view women by a novelist of rare talents. Lina Wolff, equal parts ferocious and sly, has proven herself one of our indispensable writers with this uppercut of a book." - Stephen Sparks, Point Reyes Books, Point Reyes, CA

"The Polyglot Lovers is a bracing and sharp exploration of identity, gender, and literature, told in prose and images that constantly unsettle the reader. It is also an exquisite act of literary revenge and should confirm Lina Wolff's status as a major voice in world literature." - Josh Cook, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA

"An exquisite and insightful dive into the delights and horrors of our constant search for human connection, and what happens when women decide to set fire to the literary male gaze." - Emma Ramadan, Riffraff, Providence, RI

"I absolutely loved it. Wolff's characters come to life with poignancy and dark humour. The Polyglot Lovers cuts to the heart." - Tom Harris, Mr B’s Emporium, Bath

"Lina Wolff's The Polyglot Lovers is a punch you in the face, grab you by the collar, and throw you across the room kind of novel. Brilliantly written, incisive and engaging, it is a stunning work. If you haven't yet (and why haven't you?) now would be a good time to add Wolff to your to-be-read pile." - Tom Flynn, Volumes Bookcafe, Chicago, IL

From the Publisher

2019-01-28

A burned manuscript occasions these tales from three distinct characters.

"You've never seen anyone," Max's ex-wife tells him. "You've only seen yourself, and the women you've had have only been mirrors in which you saw your own reflection." This insight arrives near the end of Swedish author Wolff's (Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs, 2016) second novel. It's a strange, disjointed book. After Max completes a manuscript (which bears the same title as Wolff's), he entrusts the only copy to literary critic Ruben, who has devoted his life to the study of Max's work. But that turns out to be a risky place; Ellinor, a woman who met Ruben online and then moved into his house, finds the manuscript and lights it on fire. Lest this all sound too straightforward, keep in mind that the plot is told backward and, as it were, from the side: The novel is split into three sections, narrated by three different characters in reverse chronological order. It begins with Ellinor's description of her own sexual history and continues in the second section with Max—a hateful character straight out of a Michel Houellebecq novel. In fact, Wolff seems to be parodying Houellebecq, or at least hanging him out to dry. But in an abrupt shift of mood and tone, the novel's third section leaves Stockholm for Italy, and this is where the novel is at its most vivid. Lucrezia narrates here: Granddaughter of Rome's very last marchesa, Lucrezia is responsible for her family's crumbling estate—the place, as it happens, where Max wrote his ill-fated manuscript. Lucrezia describes the circumstances in which he wrote it. Whether any of this comes together in the end is anyone's guess. Wolff's prose is whip-smart and deliciously cynical about Max, Michel Houellebecq, and men like them—but you still have to spend a lot of time in their company.

Wolff's book is smart, funny, and sad in turns, but the point it's making—and it seems to be trying very hard to make a point—isn't always in view.

Kirkus Reviews