Prosopopoeia by Farid Tali (2001/2016)
translated from the French by Aditi Machado
Order at Action Books, Asterism, or your local
Reviews: EuropeNow | Fanzine | World Literature Today
Interview: Literary Hub
Excerpts Online: The Guardian | World Literature Today
Praise:
“In lines so lush they verge on grotesque, the body and its beauty are rendered by Farid Tali. As ‘render’ means to depict but also separate flesh from its bone so too does this elegiac novel dismantle the barriers of memory, romanticism and predetermination to illuminate the ragged beauty of a body in transition out of itself and into what is void. Is death beautiful? If beauty rages, shocks, evanesces, then it must be. Aditi Machado makes a stark, dark French into tight, lean English, taut as a string that when plucked must sing. A brief novel that only seems to drift lightly like a musical air; in reality it will settle down heavy in your bones and haunt you a long, long time.”—Kazim Ali (advance praise)
“[A] translatory drag performance.”—Paul Cunningham, Fanzine
“[A] a tribute so painfully beautiful you need to take breaks from reading it, because your body might not be able to contain all that its body contains and offers you.”—Poupeh Missaghi, EuropeNow
“Out of the decaying body, Farid Tali has wrought song. Every sentence surprises, adding up to an exquisite book unlike any other.”—Maggie Nelson (advance praise)