Parasol Against the Axe: A Novel
"A shape-shifting novel about the power of stories…Helen Oyeyemi is a literary pied piper — her voice is the kind that readers gamely follow into the most bewildering and unnerving of situations." – The New York Times
“A metatextual masterpiece.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Oyeyemi writes here as an heir to Calvino or Borges…A dizzying, dazzling romp.” —Kirkus Reviews
The prize-winning, bestselling author of Peaces and Gingerbread returns with a novel about competitive friendship, the elastic boundaries of storytelling, and the meddling influence of a city called Prague
In Helen Oyeyemi’s joyous new novel, the Czech capital is a living thing—one that can let you in or spit you out.
For reasons of her own, Hero Tojosoa accepts an invitation she was half expected to decline, and finds herself in Prague on a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend Sofie. Little does she know she’s arrived in a city with a penchant for playing tricks on the unsuspecting. A book Hero has brought with her seems to be warping her mind: the text changes depending on when it’s being read and who’s doing the reading, revealing startling new stories of fictional Praguers past and present. Uninvited companions appear at bachelorette activities and at city landmarks, offering opinions, humor, and even a taste of treachery. When a third woman from Hero and Sofie’s past appears unexpectedly, the tensions between the friends’ different accounts of the past reach a new level.
An adventurous, kaleidoscopic novel, Parasol Against the Axe considers the lines between illusion and delusion, fact and interpretation, and weighs the risks of attaching too firmly to the stories of a place, or a person, or a shared history. How much is a tale influenced by its reader, or vice versa? And finally, in a battle between friends, is it better to be the parasol or the axe?
# of Pages: 272
Book Binding: Hardcover
Year of Publication: 2024
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Language: en
ISBN: 9780593192368
Helen Oyeyemi is a British author best known for her imaginative and thought-provoking works of fiction. Born in Nigeria in 1984, Oyeyemi moved to London with her family at a young age. She began writing at the age of 18 and published her first novel, The Icarus Girl, in 2005 while studying at Cambridge University. Since then, she has written several critically acclaimed novels, including White is for Witching and Boy, Snow, Bird. Her writing is often characterized by its blend of fantasy and realism, exploring themes of identity, race, and gender. Oyeyemi has been recognized with numerous awards and has been named one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists. She continues to write and reside in London.