Mrs Caliban (Faber Editions): 'Wonderful' (Margaret Atwood)

Description

The frogman was still there, sitting on the corner of her bed, looking towards her... Dorothy is a grieving housewife in the Californian suburbs. Her infant son, unborn child, and dog have all just died; her husband is unfaithful; her only friend is an alcoholic. One day, the radio announces that a green-skinned sea monster has escaped from the Institute for Oceanographic Research - but little did she expect him to arrive in her kitchen. Muscular yet gentle, vegetarian, and excellent at housework, Larry the frogman is a revelation: and their passionate affair goes beyond their wildest dreams... Reissued with a foreword by Irenosen Okojie, Rachel Ingalls' Mrs Caliban is a surrealist masterpiece: as dazzling today as it was four decades ago. 'A miracle . A perfect novel.' - New Yorker 'One of my favourite novels in the world.' - Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket 'Still outpaces, out-weirds, and out-romances anything today.' - Marlon James 'An impeccable parable, beautifully written.' - John Updike 'Every one of its 125 pages is perfect, original, and arresting. Clear a Saturday, please, and read it in a single sitting.' - Harper's

Rachel Ingalls was born in Boston in 1940. Her father was a Sanskrit scholar at Harvard and decoded Japanese radio messages in the war; her mother was a homemaker. She dropped out of school and spent time in Germany before studying at Radcliffe College, then moved to Britain in 1965 where she lived until her death. Her debut novel, Theft (1970), won the Authors' Club First Novel Award; and Mrs Caliban (1982) was named - to her surprise - one of the 20 best American novels since WWII by the British Book Marketing Council (alongside Toni Morrison, Philip Roth and John Updike). Over half a century, Ingalls wrote 11 story collections and novellas - all published by Faber - to great acclaim but is still relatively unknown, one of many women writers Rivka Galchen describes as 'famous for not being famous'. She died in 2019 after a revival of interest in her work. Irenosen Okojie was born in Nigeria and moved to England as a child. Her debut novel, Butterfly Fish (2015) won a Betty Trask Award; and her first story collection, Speak Gigantular (2016) was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize, a Shirley Jackson Award, and the 2017 Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Nudibranch(2019) was longlisted for the Jhalak Prize, with her story 'Grace Jones' winning the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. Curandera will be published by Dialogue Books in 2022. @IrenosenOkojie