Berg

Ann Quin (1936-1973) was a working-class writer from Brighton, England. She was at the forefront of British experimentalism in the 1960s along with BS Johnson and Alan Burns, and also lived in the US in the mid-sixties, working closely with US writers and poets including Robert Creeley. Prior to her death in 1973, she published four novels: Berg (1964), Three (1966), Passages (1969) and Tripticks (1972). A collection of short stories and the fragment of her unfinished last novel, The Unmapped Country (edited by Jennifer Hodgson), was published by And Other Stories to great acclaim in 2018. Quin’s novel Berg was republished by And Other Stories in 2019, to be followed by Three in 2020 and her remaining novels in subsequent years.

`Rare enough is a book that begins by stating its intention—rarer still one that proceeds to do seemingly everything it can to avoid following the path its intention has laid.’ Danielle Dutton, Literary Hub ----`Quin’s prose is as sharp as a deadly blade, flashing between light and dark with arresting effect.’ Financial Times ----`Progressing with the potency of a fever dream, this reissue invites readers to discover Quin’s remarkable voice.’ TANK Magazine----`The prose that makes Quin’s novel so dazzling 55 years later. The language of her book lurches in unexpected directions, fishtailing wildly from the dark to the erotic to the violent to the insanely funny.’ Shane Anderson, The Nation ----`A mixture of the surreal, the whimsical and the macabre [...] [Berg] is funny and profound, and intensely of its time.' Ian Patterson, London Review of Books----Praise for Ann Quin----'A marvelously warped book' New York Times----`Quin works over a small area with the finest of tools... every page, every word gives evidence of her care and workmanship.' New York Times Book Review-----`Quin's prose never falters; it's stunning.' Caitlin Youngquist, The Paris Review----`A gritty yet deliciously strange masterpiece of British fiction' - Calum Barnes, Morning Star`Berg reminds a little of Veronique Olmi's tragic Beside the Sea, or Ferrante's lost dolls in the sand, but with a runaway, off-kilter style all of its own that reminds the reader how celebrated Quin ought to be.' - Laura Waddell, The Skinny----`A triumph of post-war literature. A classic of social surrealism.' - Andrew Gallix, Irish Times ----`What makes Berg one of the best British novels published since the war, is [the] repetitive, unyielding territory of failed transformation ... not merely a mystical plane opened up by the work of literature: paradoxically (and with a heavy dose of sadness and black humour) it is the place where literature comes closest to life.' Daniel Fraser, Dublin Review of Books----`Read the book. There's nothing I can do in this review that approaches the feeling of reading Ann Quin's Berg. I can make lame comparisons, saying that it reminds me of James Joyce's Ulysses (in its evocations of loose consciousness), or David Lynch's Blue Velvet (in its oedipal voyeuristic griminess), or Luis Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel (for its surreal humor and dense claustrophobia). Or I can repeat: Read the book. [...] Quin wrote three other novels before walking into the sea in 1973 and never coming back. Those novels are Three (1966), Passages (1969), and Tripticks (1972). I really hope that And Other Stories will reissue these in the near future. Until then: Read the book.' Edwin Turner, Biblioklept