{"product_id":"parasol-against-the-axe","title":"Parasol Against the Axe","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eONE OF BIBLIOLIFESTYLE'S \"BEST LITERARY FICTION OF 2024\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A shape-shifting novel about the power of stories...Helen Oyeyemi is a literary pied piper -- her voice is the kind that readers gamely follow into the most bewildering and unnerving of situations.\" - \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A metatextual masterpiece.\" --\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, STARRED REVIEW \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"\u003cb\u003eOyeyemi writes here as an heir to Calvino or Borges...A dizzying, dazzling romp.\" \u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe prize-winning, bestselling author of \u003ci\u003ePeaces\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGingerbread\u003c\/i\u003e returns with a novel about competitive friendship, the elastic boundaries of storytelling, and the meddling influence of a city called Prague \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn Helen Oyeyemi's joyous new novel, the Czech capital is a living thing--one that can let you in or spit you out. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor reasons of her own, Hero Tojosoa accepts an invitation she was half expected to decline, and finds herself in Prague on a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend Sofie. Little does she know she's arrived in a city with a penchant for playing tricks on the unsuspecting. A book Hero has brought with her seems to be warping her mind: the text changes depending on when it's being read and who's doing the reading, revealing startling new stories of fictional Praguers past and present. Uninvited companions appear at bachelorette activities and at city landmarks, offering opinions, humor, and even a taste of treachery. When a third woman from Hero and Sofie's past appears unexpectedly, the tensions between the friends' different accounts of the past reach a new level. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn adventurous, kaleidoscopic novel, \u003ci\u003eParasol Against the Axe\u003c\/i\u003e considers the lines between illusion and delusion, fact and interpretation, and weighs the risks of attaching too firmly to the stories of a place, or a person, or a shared history. How much is a tale influenced by its reader, or vice versa? And finally, in a battle between friends, is it better to be the parasol or the axe?","brand":"Riverhead Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46786648211692,"sku":"9780593192375","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/2987\/3644\/files\/imageloader_799bb375-cb09-41f2-8bd0-569aec24019e.jpg?v=1756891604","url":"https:\/\/www.gladysbooksandwine.com\/products\/parasol-against-the-axe","provider":"Gladys Books \u0026 Wine","version":"1.0","type":"link"}