You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Serpent’s Tail has acquired An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life, a "laceratingly funny" debut short story collection by Australian author Paul Dalla Rosa.
Publisher Hannah Westland acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Australia and New Zealand, from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein, on behalf of Kent Wolf at Neon Literary. Jane Palfreyman at Allen & Unwin has acquired Australian and New Zealand rights.
Whether working in food service or in high-end retail, lit by a laptop in a sex chat or by the camera of an acclaimed film director, sharing a flat in the city or a holiday rental in Mallorca, the protagonists of the 10 stories comprising Dalla Rosa’s debut collection "navigate the spaces between aspiration and delusion, ambition and aimlessness, the curated profile and the unreliable body".
According to the synopsis: "By turns unsparing and tender, Dalla Rosa explores our lives in late-stage capitalism, where globalisation and its false promises of connectivity leave us further alienated and disenfranchised. Like the legendary Lucia Berlin and his contemporary Ottessa Moshfegh, Dalla Rosa is a masterful observer—and hilarious eviscerator—of our ugly, beautiful attempts at finding meaning in an ugly, beautiful world."
Dalla Rosa is a writer based in Melbourne. His stories have appeared in Granta, McSweeney’s, Meanjin and New York Tyrant. In 2019 his short story "Comme" was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Short Story Award.
"I’m thrilled An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life is being published with Serpent’s Tail," he said. "They embody the qualities I strive for; a sense of fearlessness, something that can be different, something that leaves a sting. I can’t wait to see the book out in the world with a serpent twisted on its spine."
"Paul is an absolutely thrilling literary talent," Westland said. "These stories are exquisitely crafted, carefully observed, painfully true and at times laceratingly funny. It’s an honour to be publishing him on the Serpent’s Tail list."