Little Eyes: LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE, 2020

(Hardback)

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Description

They look harmless enough: you could even call them cute. A cuddly panda, a brightly-coloured dragon, a miniature crow. Theyre part of the latest craze exploding from Croatia to Norway to Brazil: they are 'Kentukis'. Not quite a phone, not quite a toy, not quite a robot, Kentukis contain cameras which allow someone on the other side of the planet to access the most intimate moments of another persons life. And it doesnt take long for these apparently innocent devices to fall prey to our dark obsession with technology. Reminiscent of the very best of Black Mirror, Kentukis is a chilling portrait of our compulsively interconnected society. Schweblin irresistibly pulls the reader into an unsettling, unforgettable world of voyeurism, narcissism, and the sinister reality that lies beneath the most seductive of masks.

Reviews

'Ingenious...An artful exploration of solitude and empathy in a globalised world In a nimble, fast-moving narrative, whats most impressive is the way she foregrounds her characters inner hopes and fears.'

* Guardian *

'Disturbing... Schweblin enjoys hovering just above the normal. Inspired by Samuel Beckett, she is interested in exposing absurdities.'

* Financial Times *

Little Eyes makes for masterfully uneasy reading; its a book that burrows under your skin.

* Telegraph *

'I cannot remember a book so efficient in establishing character and propelling narrative; theres material for a hundred novels in these deft, rich 242 pages...The writing, ably translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, is superb, fully living up to the promise of Schweblin's stunning previous novel, Fever Dream... A slim volume as expansive and ambitious as an epic.'

* New York Times *

'A timely meditation on humanity and technology.'

* Harper's Bazaar *

'Little Eyesprovides us with a powerful examination of the underlining disparities that persist. It is a fable for a society in which we are all made to feel simultaneously exposed and anonymous, connected and alone.'

* Times Literary Supplement *

Little Eyes acts as a clear warning that every digital decision we make has consequences... It does feel alarmingly real.

* i *

'This dazzling inquiry into loneliness and connection...has been given added resonance by the atomisation of lockdown.'

* Guardian, '50 Brilliant Books to Transport You This Summer' *

'A dark story, beautifully translated by Megan McDowell, it leaves the reader in a world from which there is no escape, as it questions our growing complicity in social media and neocapitalist technologies.'

* Morning Star *

'Creepy as hell.'

* Weekend Sport *

Enjoyable reading rifng on everyday human foibles jealousy, capriciousness, existential restlessnessthe understatedly arch tone is well served by Megan McDowells translation, which is so slick that one hardly seems to be reading a translated work.

* Literary Review *

'Daring and original... Schweblin deftly explores both the loneliness and casual cruelty that can inform our attempts to connect in this modern world.'

* Booklist *

'Ifyou want a spookily prescient vision of human isolation both assuaged and deepened by inscrutable, glitch-prone tech, thenLittle Eyesmore than fits the brief...Adroitly served by Megan McDowells winningly deadpan translation, these stories deal not in 'truly brutal plots' but 'desperately human and quotidian' urges, fears and scams...In the middle of our stay-at-home, broadband-enabled apocalypse, that feels right.'

* Spectator *

'The 'toys' Schweblin has created are the perfect hybrid between a pet and a social network, enabling her to dissect problems that touch all of our lives: the dark side of the internet; the global epidemic of loneliness; the dumb inertia that leads usto jump on board with the latest trend As always in the worlds Schweblin creates,the real monsters are to be found not in the outside world, but inside each of us.'

* New York Times (Spanish edition) *

'A dystopian novel that is necessary, hypnotic, irresistible.'

* Elle Italia *

'This brilliant and disturbing book resembles Margaret Atwoods Handmaids Tale in how it speculatesSchweblin unspools a disquieting portrait of the dark sides of connectivity and the kinds of animalistic cyborgs it can make of us, as we walk through barriers that even spirits cannot cross.'

* Literary Hub *

'The finest novel of the past five years. Quite exceptional.Little Eyes will certainly feature in future lists of the ten best novels of this century.'

* Luisg Martn, author of The Same City *

'A nuanced exploration of anonymous connection and distant intimacy in our heavily accessible yet increasingly isolated lives...Capacious, touching, and disquieting, this is not-so-speculative fiction for an overnetworked and underconnected age.'

* Kirkus Reviews *

'Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell, is a chilling and often hilarious book on the pitfalls of living in a highly interconnected world. Schweblin has a true talent for getting to the centre of our fears and drawing them out. An intensely clever title that will have you examining your own relationship to the internet.'

-- Daisy Johnson, author of Sisters

'This has a propulsive, Dave Eggers-ish readability.'

* Daily Mail *

'Little Eyes is a short, powerful, disquieting novel. The story explores the grey area that constitutes an invasion of privacy, and the line between intimacy and exhibitionism. Samanta Schweblin guides the narrative with a skilful hand reminiscent of her very finest short stories. An excellent storyteller, but above all, a true writer.'

* La Razn *

'Readers will be fascinated by the kentuki-human interactions, which smartly reveal how hungry we are for connection in a technology-bent world. Of a piece with Schweblins elliptical Fever Dream and the disturbing story collection Mouthful of Birds...this jittery eye-opener will appeal to a wide range of readers.'

* Library Journal *

'Schweblins handling of tension and her viscously instantaneous ironic twists, familiar from her short story collection Mouthful of Birds, are delicious... Aneerie sense of disjuncture characterises the entire reading experience...an indicator of the deep, discomforting place it has made itself under my skin.'

* 3:AM magazine *

'Schweblin unfurls an eerie, uncanny story Daring, bold, and devious.'

* Publishers Weekly *

'Her most unsettling work yet and her most realistic.'

* New York Times *

A master of the unsettling the imaginary technology at the heart of Little Eyesfeels all too real, and Schweblin persuasively elaborates its operations and implications the novels breadth provides much of its pleasure, allowing an inventiveness that balances the bleakness of its characters lives.

-- Hannah Rosefield * The New Statesman *

'In Samanta Schweblin's fiendishly readable Little Eyes, the new must-have tech gadget allows users to leapfrog into the lives of strangers a sharp idea that became even more pertinent with the isolation and atomisation of lockdown.'

-- Guardian, Best Fiction of 2020

'Schweblin's clear and brisk language, aided by a seemingly effortless translation from Spanish by Megan McDowell, drives home the accessibility of this outlandish story. Little Eyes is strange and addictive, an experience made even more frightening by how familiar this feels.'

* Salon *

Alluring and unsettling in equal measure A subtle and scathing parody of modern communications technology and social media Colourful and near-hypnotic prose A rare, yet powerful, indictment of a society that tolerates and even encourages violations of one of our most precious moral commodities privacy.

* E&T *

'She has a gift for fiction that is pure, original, revelatory.'

* El Pas *

'Little Eyes calls to mind the world of Black Mirror. The result is suffocating and addictive in equal measure; combining the minutiae of domestic life with a picture of the dark side of technology in a disconcertingly natural style. A story about voyeurism, and the pleasure of looking at the world through someone elses eyes.'

* El Mundo *

'An insightful reflection on solitude and privacy.'

* ABC *

'[Schweblin is] a literary explorer of 21^st century fears.'

* La Vanguardia *

'Schweblin plunges herself once again into the disturbing limits of what we think of as 'normal'.'

* Letras Libres *

'This isnt science fiction; this is the here and now.'

* El Diario *

'Drawn in quotidian elegance, the novel is a string of nonstop, colorful vignettes If Schweblins sci-fi thriller Fever Dream made sleep difficult, Little Eyes raises the unease quotient. The book seems to watch viewers creepily as it unfolds.'

* BookPage *

'Like a true master, Schweblin manages to lure us in with a story that leaves us both bruised and fascinated.'

* Culturas *

'The undisputed star of Latin American fiction.'

* ABC Sevilla *

'The fantastic and strange worlds of Samanta Schweblins work are described with wisdom and ferocity.'

* La Repubblica *

'[Little Eyes is] yet another unsettling glimpse of life...providing us with the disturbing psychological insights which we associate with her work... Once again Schweblin has produced a novel which is prescient and frightening in equal measure.

* 1streading *

'Embedded within this novel of international interconnectivity are questions of the exhibitionism and voyeurism tied up in our use of technology. Expect echoes of theWachowskis'Sense8, except told with what has been characterized as Schweblin's "neurotic unease."'

* The Millions, Most Anticipated Titles of 2020 *

'Samanta Schweblin will injure you, however safe you may feel.'

* Jesse Ball, author of Census *

'Samanta Schweblin is one of the most promising voices in modern literature.'

* Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature *

'Little Eyesby Samanta Schweblin was pure sorcery. Hands down, one of the best books of 2020 (so far)...I was intoxicated.'

* The Book Satchel *

'In accentuating so many of the dangers of online communities, as well as [the] advantages, Schweblin takes you on a psychological journey that feels like a Black Mirror episode and has you questioning actions that seemed mundane before.'

* The Book Slut *

'Brilliantly creepy.'

-- New York Times, Notable Books of 2020

'Little Eyessupposes a world that is our world, 5 minutes from now...It then introduces one small thing one little change, one product, one tweaked application of a totally familiar technology and tracks the ripples of chaos that it creates...Think for just a moment the kind of joy and the kind of horror something like that would create. Then read Little Eyes and see how whatever it was that you imagined was just the beginning of how awful it could be.'

-- NPR, Best Books of the Year

'Asmart and timely meditation on what the internet is doing to the human soul... Funny, frightening and bound to make you turn off your mobile.'

-- Tablet, Summer reads

Author Bio

Samanta Schweblin is the author of three story collections that have won numerous awards, including the prestigious Juan Rulfo Story Prize, and most recently, a Man Booker International Prize longlisting for Mouthful of Birds (Oneworld, 2019). Her debut novel Fever Dream was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2017. Originally from Buenos Aires, she lives in Berlin. Megan McDowell has translated books by many contemporary South American and Spanish authors, and her translations have been published in The New Yorker, Harper's and The Paris Review. She lives in Chile.