spuytenduyvil

Globalization seen through the eyes of the rootless and uprooted. Immigrants, refugees, outcasts, lost souls seeking shelter in Barcelona, a city of transit and transition, a backdrop to drama and epiphany as a shifting world strips humans of belief, certainty and habitual points of reference. A Guatemalan maid cut off from kin and country, an African refugee interpreting Catholic confessions, a devout Muslim girl forced to eat during Ramadan, a vagrant hounded by street punks, an American expat under police arrest, and a terrified psychologist on night patrol in Afghanistan. Lonely and adrift, in pain and out, fighting to survive even as a longing for home is trampled upon knowing they can never return. An angel of death, a bedeviled monk, a clown without a face. Twenty parables of exile and homecoming for our chaotic, homeless times.

“Pfister has both sense and sensibility.  He also has a dry sense of humor and a fine, muscular writing style...  a novelist’s eye for fringe characters and ear for dialogue.”

   Los Angeles Times

 

“Pfister is an awfully good writer.”

   Jack Beatty, The Atlantic Monthly

 

“... he conveys brilliantly the exhilaration of seeking, of trying, or reaching beyond, no matter where it takes you.”

   Toledo Blade

 

“...Pfister interweaves the mystical and the everyday... His words are honest, insightful, and very personal...”

   Library Journal

 

“Pfister is really good.  Go with him.”

   New Orleans Times-Picayune