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ABOUT AUTHOR Laura Vogt (Teufen, 1989) studied creative writing at the Swiss Literature Institute in Biel and Cultural Studies at the University of Luzern. Her first novel So einfach war es zu gehen came out in 2016. She is also the author of numerous short stories and articles as well as lyrical and dramatic texts. She started writing her second novel Was uns betrifft (What Concerns Us) just two months after having her first child. In her work, Laura is particularly interested in exploring the complexity of relationships, maternity, as well as inquiring into the many forms that womanhood can take. She is currently working on her third novel. Laura lives in the canton of St. Gallen.

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DESCRIPTION. Rahel and Fenna are in their late twenties and early thirties. They are sisters. Their mother Vera brought them up by herself. Vera started a series of romantic relationships with other women, and now suffers from breast cancer. Rahel, a jazz singer, is pregnant and single but in love with writer Boris with whom she eventually moves. While she seems to embrace maternity and family life, she falls pregnant from Boris, and her body turns into a complete alienated part of herself. When the baby is born, she rejects maternity; at the same time, she cannot stop breastfeeding the baby. In the meanwhile, Fenna expects a child from Luc, a man who can turn from charming hippy to aggressor in a heartbeat, raping her on a woodland walk well into their relationship. We follow Fenna throughout her complex response, from rage, to acceptance, to feelings of responsibility and guilt. WHAT CONCERNS US is a blunt depiction of pregnancy, sex, maternity and relationships through the lives of two women.

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THE WEASEL AND THE WHORE
  • THE WEASEL AND THE WHORE

THE WEASEL AND THE WHORE

A grim underground portrait of today's Cuba, where young people
struggle to shake off the vestiges of Castroism.
 
From Monday to Saturday, Mary is a young and talented artist in the artistic, bohemian and fringe circles of Havana. But on Sundays, Mary becomes the sex toy of a high official of the regime. Her condition as a woman and artist, bisexual and alienated from Castroism, inevitably pushes her towards social exclusion, and
Mary begins to need a strong reason to remain in Cuba.
 
Featuring a host of unforgettable, colourful, and irreverent members of the Havana underground, The Weasel and The Whore raises vitally important questions which a whole generation is finding increasingly difficult to ignore: how to live under a regime that promotes class abuse and hate, whether it be sexual or for reasons of gender identity, or the simple fact of voicing one’s own thoughts?
 
Martha Luisa Hernández Cadenas (Guantánamo, 1991) is a playwright, writer and performer. She has written three poetry collections, and won the David Prize for Poetry in 2017 and the Havana Poetry Biennial Prize. She is the creator of several performances in Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Spain, German, Canada and Switzerland. The Weasel and The Whore is her debut novel and was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize in 2020 as well as the English PEN Award for our English translation.
 
Julia Sanches is a translator from Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan. Recent translations include Living Things by Munir Hachemi and Mammoth by Eva Baltasar, both longlisted for the Cercador Prize. Sanches was shortlisted for the Booker International Prize for her translations of Boulder and Undiscovered, and longlisted for her translation of Reservoir Bitches.
 
Jennifer Shyue is a translator from Spanish. Her translations include Julia Wong Kcomt’s poetry collections A Blind Salmon and Vice-royal-ties, as well as Augusto Higa Oshiro’s novel The Enlightenment of Katzuo Nakamatsu, which received the ALTA First Translation Prize. She can be found at shyue.co
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