{"product_id":"the-calf-9781913744243","title":"The Calf","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePart Appalachian gothic, part science fiction, part Norwegian western, \u003cem\u003eThe Calf\u003c\/em\u003e is a darkly comic backwoods phantasmagoria that bends genres until they break in a feat of linguistic experimentation.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a subterranean office labyrinth somewhere in Hadeland, Norway, a mechanical barn gnome with a metal bucket for a head spends his days shredding paper, brewing coffee, and trying to forget a certain late summer night in the woods sometime in the 1980s. That night-hazy, mythic, traumatic--centers on the Mare Cooter Canyon and a ragtag bunch of teenage boys calling themselves \"the cowboys.\" As the narrator's memory crackles and sputters, we encounter grotesque archetypes: a resurrected Christ-like figure called the Dead Feller, a mysterious, moon-faced woman who may be an employment caseworker, and a strange, amorphous alien called the Calf. What happened out there, and who--or what--is telling the story? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on the linguistic inventions of Twain and Faulkner, translator David M. Smith boldly reimagines the rural dialect of Leif H oslash;ghaug's original, bringing it into a lush, inventive Appalachian English. The result is a voice that's as haunted, broken, and unforgettable as its narrator. \u003cem\u003eThe Calf\u003c\/em\u003e is a howl from the margins, a cracked hymn of language under pressure--conceived and written alongside the author's Norwegian translation of \u003cem\u003eFinnegans Wake\u003c\/em\u003e, and unmistakably charged with that book's spirit of dream logic, doubleness, and rapturous musicality.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLEIF HØGHAUG\u003c\/strong\u003e, (1974) lives in Gran, Eastern Norway, and teaches at the Creative Writing Department at the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN). \u003cem\u003eFama\u003c\/em\u003e, his first book of poetry was published in 2012. Since then, he has published two more poetry books, \u003cem\u003eThe Calf\u003c\/em\u003e is his first novel. He is currently working on a Norwegian translation of James Joyce's \u003cem\u003eFinnegans Wake\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDAVID M. SMITH\u003c\/strong\u003e is a native of Georgia, USA. Besides \u003cem\u003eThe Calf\u003c\/em\u003e, his translations include \u003cem\u003eThe Red Handler\u003c\/em\u003e by Johan Harstad and a forthcoming edition of Tarjei Vesaas's short fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Fum d'Estampa","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51705359401234,"sku":"9781913744243","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_90f1b3c2-71f5-4d71-a645-4ec1b19bad89.jpg?v=1762346135","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-calf-9781913744243","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}