Penguin Books Blog

Dear Reader
 
I am delighted to introduce you to COCKROACH, the riveting and brilliant second novel from Rawi Hage, whose debut DE NIRO’S GAME recently won the IMPAC Award, the world’s richest book prize.

I haven’t felt so gripped or so impressed by a novel since I read Mohsin Hamid’s THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST — and it shares with that book a complete mastery of language, style and tone; a thrilling narrative; a love story; an undercurrent of surprising humour; and a laser-like insight into the plight of displaced people — in this case an immigrant from an unnamed Arabic country now living in the cold, snowy north, in Quebec.

We learn from his first person narration that he has recently attempted suicide; is an accomplished thief, able to enter houses as much out as a desire for connection as out of hunger or poverty; that he is in love with an Iranian woman named Shoreh; and that his world is one of smoky cafes peopled with other immigrants attempting in their different ways to get by in the underbelly of their new country. In the restaurant where he works, one day, Shoreh sees a rich Iranian she recognises as the man who raped and tortured her in Iran — and asks our narrator to get hold of a gun so she can get her revenge… The consequences of this request are echoed by a tragic back-story in which we learn that our narrator’s sister has been murdered by her militia-man husband back in Lebanon some years earlier.

As well as a compelling narrative the novel is a portrait of life on the outside of society, where men and women alike are unmoored from their families and hustling just to get by. As one of the IMPAC judges wrote, having read this “It not only equals DE NIRO’S GAME but probably surpasses it. This is another great work where talent, intelligence and great skill meet in a moving and hugely timely book”.

I do hope that you will love this novel — which has already had rave endorsements from Mohsin Hamid, Colm Toibin and Hari Kunzru, and been shortlisted for all three of Canada’s major literary prizes.
With best wishes,

 

Simon

 

Simon Prosser

Publishing Director

Hamish Hamilton & Penguin

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