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Paradise Rot

Jenny Hval
Chapters (26)
  1. Cover Page
  2. Halftitle Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Contents
  6. Milk and Silk
  7. The Chest
  8. The Shadows
  9. The Apartment
  10. The Apples
  11. The Fruitpearls
  12. The Double Sleep
  13. The Moonlip
  14. The Spores
  15. The Brewery
  16. Pym
  17. Seasnails
  18. Prune Skin
  19. The Honey Mushroom
  20. The Lighthouse
  21. The Storm
  22. Goldapple Stems
  23. Eden
  24. Black Fruit
  25. Under the Sea
  26. Epilogue

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.