Bonita Avenue - Softcover

Great European art: the Dutchman Peter Buwalda explodes the bourgeois family saga: the narrative pyrotechnics alone are a tour de force Die Zeit A literary sensation. Bonita Avenue is no less than a phenomenal masterpiece tip berlin The Dutch answer to Jonathan Franzen NRC Handelsblad Extraordinarily gripping. A dream debut HP/De Tijd [A] dazzling family saga... [Buwalda s] brilliance is unique -- Kate Saunders The Times One wild ride: a swirling helix of a family saga...a new writer as toe-curling as early Roth, as roomy as Franzen and as caustic as Houellebecq. Don't let me forget to mention Jonathan Reeder's note-perfect English translation. -- Anthony Cummins Sunday Telegraph Dutch bestseller about internet porn lives up to hype...a considerable achievement for a seasoned writer, much less a newcomer... -- James Kidd Independent Fluent and complex, uncompromising and occasionally shocking... Daily Mail Addictive bedlam... Bonita Avenue deserves to be a book, not just a debut, of the year Independent (Books of the Year) Buwalda writes with ferocious dexterity... Bonita Avenue is a family epic seething with learning and regret, the kind with which commuting becomes a pleasure. New Statesman A brilliantly constructed story, with complex characters tested to the limit The Lady Buwalda's debut novel [is] daring in its linguistic power and freedom, and impressive, even frightening, in its psychological sharpness and precision ... great and outrageous. Frankfurter Rundschau Peter Buwalda's impressive family saga is a genuine page-turner, with a forceful, precise style. The author races with unstoppable speed towards the finish, without getting entangled in the numerous gripping narrative strands, without even steering out of the curve. Libris-Prize Jury Report, 2011 One of the first great European novels of the 21st century Foyles Bookshop interview with author Highly, highly recommended reading Savidge Reads A robust dark farce ...Whatever literary benchmark you use, the book's hyperbolic excess and willingness to plunge recklessly to the depths are what make it work The New York Times Book Review The plot orchestration and lively character renderings of "Bonita Avenue" are dazzling The New York Times Book Review A robust dark farce ...Whatever literary benchmark you use, the book's hyperbolic excess and willingness to plunge recklessly to the depths are what make it work The New York Times The plot orchestration and lively character renderings of "Bonita Avenue" are dazzling The New York Times

A darkly hilarious tale of a model family's disintegration. Professor Siem Sigerius - maths genius, jazz lover, judo champion, Renaissance man. When Aaron meets his girlfriend Joni's family for the first time, her multitalented father could hardly be a more intimidating figure, but somehow the underachieving photographer manages to bluff his way to a friendship with the paterfamilias. With his feet under the table at the beautiful Sigerius farmhouse, Aaron feels part of the family. A perfect family. Until, that is, things start to go wrong in a very big way. A cataclysmic explosion in a firework factory, the advent of internet pornography, the reappearance of a forgotten murderer and a jet-black wig-all play a role in the spectacular fragmentation of the Sigerius clan... and of Aaron's fragile psyche. 'One wild ride: a swirling helix of a family saga...a new writer as toe-curling as early Roth, as roomy as Franzen and as caustic as Houellebecq. Don't let me forget to mention Jonathan Reeder's note-perfect English translation.' Anthony Cummins, Sunday Telegraph, 5-stars 'Dutch bestseller about internet porn lives up to hype....a considerable achievement for a seasoned writer, much less a newcomer...' James Kidd, Independent 'Fluent and complex, uncompromising and occasionally shocking...' Daily Mail 'Buwalda writes with ferocious dexterity... Bonita Avenue is a family epic seething with learning and regret, the kind with which commuting becomes a pleasure.' New Statesman 'A brilliantly constructed story, with complex characters tested to the limit' The Lady 'One of the first great European novels of the 21st century' Foyles Bookshop interview with author Highly, highly recommended reading.Savidge Reads If I had to choose one first novel, it would be the addictive bedlam of Bonita Avenue... deserves to be a book, not just a debut, of the year' Independent Books of the Year 'Dripping with sex and bursting with comedy... in a plot of fiendish ingenuity. Buwalda has a cold eye for the hilarity of human disaster that would make Evelyn Waugh blanch. Read this book, love it, and try to ignore the twisting in your gut.' Booktrust 'Great European art: the Dutchman Peter Buwalda explodes the bourgeois family saga. The narrative pyrotechnics alone are a tour de force.' Die Zeit Born in Brussels in 1971, Peter Buwalda is a Dutch novelist, formerly a journalist, editor at several publishers, and founder of the literary music magazine Wah-Wah. Bonita Avenue is his debut novel. Published in 2010 to critical acclaim, it was shortlisted for twelve prizes, going on to win the Academica Prize, the Selexyz Debut Prize, the Tzum Prize, the Anton Wachter Prize and the Leesclubboek van het jaar. It spent two years on the bestseller lists, and has since been translated into seven languages.