Like Flies from Afar

(Paperback, Main)

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Description

'Sharp, savage and tense' - Sunday Times Crime Club

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

Luis Machi has had enemies for a long time thanks to his corrupt business deals and cooperation with the military junta's coup, not to mention the numerous infidelities of his love life. What is new, however, is the corpse chained to the boot of Machi's car with furry pink handcuffs . . .

Someone is trying to set him up and the number of suspects is incalculable. Machi is stuck dredging his guilty past for clues and trying to dispose of the mystery corpse. But time is just another enemy and it's running out fast.

Reviews

This novel should come with a hazardous-material warning . . . First words to last, it's strong stuff -- JAMES SALLIS * * author of Drive * *
Ferrari keeps the story tightly pinned onto one single day, as one crazily escalating problem opens up a whole world of sleaze, crime and corruption . . . Sharp, savage and tense * * Sunday Times Crime Club * *
Blackly comic . . . Heavy on action and dark humour . . . for those who like their noir fast, short and nasty * * New York Times * *
Existential and electric . . . Ferrari's plotting is ingenious * * Los Angeles Times * *
Both brutal and wickedly funny, a satire on Argentinian politics and money. The novel is taut, fast-paced and patently filmic; there are plenty of exuberant scenes and a clever poetic ending. This is a gritty read . . . a very entertaining pastiche of classic noir . . . deliciously dark and farcical. Like Flies from Afar is a mix of barbed humour, irony and the grotesque . . . This novel is Ferrari's reflection on the scars of recent history; dictatorship, financial crash and oligarchy * * Crime Time * *
K. Ferrari, award-winning writer by day, metro cleaner by night. Working with his writing, bit by bit, he's putting on another uniform: that of a literary sensation * * El Pas * *
Like Flies from Afar has an unprecedented power -- CARLOS SALEM
A writer to keep an eye on -- BENITO GARRIDO * * Culturamas * *
A rare example, translated into English, of a contemporary thriller from Argentina. And turbo-charged it certainly is . . . if you're into dark, sardonic humour in the vein of Jim Thompson at his most dyspeptic you're in for a wicked treat, with a menu full of sex, corruption, Hunter Thompson-like binges on illegal substances and alcohol, and more illegal episodes than an episode of The Wire * * Crime Time * *

Author Bio

K. Ferrari was born in Buenos Aires. He is the author of several novels, collections of short fiction and a book of non-fiction. He is the winner of the Casa de las Americas Prize. Like Flies from Afar is the first of his books to be translated into English and is published in Argentina, Spain, Italy, France and the US. It was shortlisted for the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger.

Adrian Nathan West is the author of The Aesthetics of Degradation. He is a contributor to the Times Literary Supplement and the Literary Review; his essays, short fiction and translations have also appeared in the New York Review of Books, McSweeney's, the London Review of Books and other publications. @a_nathanwest | anathanwest.com