City of Ash and Red: A Novel

Author: Pyun, Hye-young

Number Of Pages: 256

Details:

NAMED AN NPR GREAT READ OF 2018 From the Shirley Jackson Award–winning author of The Hole, a Kafkaesque tale of crime and punishment hailed by Korea’s Wall Street Journal as “an airtight masterpiece.” Distinguished for his talents as a rat killer, the nameless protagonist of Hye-young Pyun's City of Ash and Red is sent by the extermination company he works for on an extended assignment in C, a country descending into chaos and paranoia, swept by a contagious disease, and flooded with trash. No sooner does he disembark than he is whisked away by quarantine officials and detained overnight. Isolated and forgotten, he realizes that he is stranded with no means of contacting the outside world. Still worse, when he finally manages to reach an old friend, he is told that his ex-wife's body was found in his apartment and he is the prime suspect. Barely managing to escape arrest, he must struggle to survive in the streets of this foreign city gripped with fear of contamination and reestablish contact with his company and friends in order to clear his reputation. But as the man's former life slips further and further from his grasp, and he looks back on his time with his wife, it becomes clear that he may not quite be who he seems. From the bestselling author of The Hole, City of Ash and Red is an apocalyptic account of the destructive impact of fear and paranoia on people's lives as well as a haunting novel about a man’s loss of himself and his humanity.

Reviews:

AN NPR 2018 GREAT READ  A BARNES & NOBLE BEST HORROR BOOK OF 2018

“ City of Ash And Red will pull you into its nightmare. . . . I've taken to calling it  High-Rise if J.G. Ballard took on a whole neighborhood instead of just one luxury apartment building. It's a good book and it's a nasty one. . . . Whether you want to believe this is a grim look at the human condition or an exciting bit of weird fiction, it's worth a read.”

― NPR

“Hye-Young Pyun creates a dark allegory of humankind in this apocalyptic novel. . . . A horrific nightmare that won't soon be forgotten.”

— Shelf Awareness

"Another gruesome masterpiece."

― Crime Reads,

"Daily Thrill"

"This book is not for everyone, but then neither was  The Vegetarian, or  Confessions, or  The Cat in the Coffin. It’s also not easily classified: Horror? Dystopian? Thriller? Doesn’t matter. If it’s to your taste, this book will keep you reading long past any previously established threshold of morbidity."

— LitHub

"Devoutly stark and in tune with the pangs of urban alienation . . . Pyun offers her work to an international audience on her own terms, by speaking directly to the state of alienation made familiar to much of the world by globalization. . . . The amnesiac protagonist is left unnamed because he is us.”

— Jae Won Chung, Boston Review

“An apocalyptic tale on the human condition, rife with Kafkaesque paranoia and brutal isolation.”

— This Is Horror

"Haunting."

— World Literature Today

"Dark and harrowing . . . [Pyun is a] master at maintaining tension, even in the most everyday scenes. Hair-raising passages abound. . . . Sora Kim-Russell has done a particularly good job of getting the voice of the narrator just right."

— Wasafiri

“A novel that could easily have been written by Kafka himself. . . . And for those unfamiliar with the Kafkaesque, know that if you feel a familiar tug at your heart when you read of a man lost and frightened, even as an adult, wondering how his life became what it is, and why he cannot find help where he expects it to be, know that you will find company in this story and with its readers.”

― Books and Bao

“A daring post-apocalyptic novel from a powerful rising literary voice. . . . A highly hypnotic tale that will draw you in and hit you where it hurts. Pyun's novel  The HoleI was a masterclass and this one is no different.”

― Signal Horizon

"Kafkaesque . . . Those with a taste for creepy suspense will be rewarded."

― Publishers Weekly

“Kim-Russell’s abili...

EAN: 9781628727814

Release Date: 06-11-2018

Languages: English

Item Note: Great shape- pages are unmarked and sharp. Hardcover Used - Like New Ships fast! 2018

Item Condition: UsedLikeNew

Binding: Hardcover