Paradise Rot
Chapters (26)
Cover Page
Halftitle Page
PARADISE ROT
Title Page
PARADISE ROT
A Novel
JENNY HVAL
Translated by Marjam Idriss
Copyright Page
This translation has been published with the financial support of NORLA
This English-language edition first published by Verso 2018
First published as Perlebryggeriet
© Kolon Forlag 2009
Translation © Marjam Idriss 2018
Lyrics to ‘Alison’ reproduced by kind permission of
Neil Halstead and Cherry Red Songs
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Verso
UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG
US: 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201
versobooks.com
Verso is the imprint of New Left Books
ISBN-13: 978-1-78663-383-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-78663-384-2 (US EBK)
ISBN-13: 978-1-78663-385-9 (UK EBK)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hval, Jenny, 1980– author. | Idriss, Marjam.
Title: Paradise rot : a novella / by Jenny Hval ; translated by Marjam Idriss.
Other titles: Perlebryggeriet. English
Description: London ; Brooklyn, NY : Verso, 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018004566 | ISBN 9781786633835 | ISBN 9781786633859 (UK EBK)
Typeset in Electra by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
Contents
Contents
Milk and Silk
The Chest
The Shadows
The Apartment
The Apples
The Fruitpearls
The Double Sleep
The Moonlip
The Spores
The Brewery
Pym
Seasnails
Prune Skin
The Honey Mushroom
The Lighthouse
The Storm
Goldapple Stems
Eden
Black Fruit
Under the Sea
Epilogue
PARADISE ROT
Milk and Silk
Milk and Silk
THERE, AND NOT there.
Outside the hostel window the town is hidden by fog. The pier down below dissolves into the colourless distance, like a bridge into the clouds. At times the fog disperses a little, and the contours of islands appear a little way out to sea. Then they’re gone again. There, not there, there, not there, I whisper, leaning against the window, drumming my fingers against the glass in time with the words, dunk, du-dunk, as if I’m programing a new heartbeat for a new home.