Naw Much of a Talker
ABOUT
THE BOOK
An acclaimed, award-winning comic novel about truth, lies and storytelling, with an unforgettably unreliable narrator, translated from its innovative Swiss vernacular back into the Glaswegian that was its original inspiration.
Known only as ‘the goalie’, the novel’s narrator is always taking the blame. He’s just been released from jail, having kept schtum during a drugs bust. The goalie is a sucker for a good story, he lives and breathes them, is forever telling stories to himself and anyone who’ll listen.
He returns to his hometown broke, falling in love with Regi, a barmaid. On a trip together to Spain Regi realises that this obsession with storytelling has its downsides, the goalie all too ready to believe the yarns his so-called friends spin.
Naw Much of a Talker is a charming, hilarious tour through the goalie’s anecdotes. Storytelling is his way of avoiding problems and conflict, his crowning achievement and tragic flaw. Regi concludes that it isn’t a woman the goalie needs, but an audience.
Inspired by a six month residency in Glasgow, Pedro Lenz harnesses his considerable powers as a performer and oral storyteller in this powerful and unforgettable celebration of the rhythms and musicality of the spoken word.
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Donal
McLaughlin
Born in Derry in 1961, but resident in Scotland since 1970, Donal McLaughlin is a freelance writer and translator (from German, mainly). Scottish PEN’s first ècrivain sans frontières and a recent recipient of the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award, Donal has also represented the City of Glasgow in both Berne (Scottish Writing Fellow) and Nuremberg (Hermann Kesten Fellow). Known for his short stories, a number of which have already appeared in translation, he has published the collections An Allergic Reaction to National Anthems and Beheading the Virgin Mary. His translation work includes collaborating with Chris Dolan on a stage version of Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader; Shards, a bilingual edition of the poetry of Stella Rotenberg (with Stephen Richardson); twenty-nine of the forty-five writers in New Swiss Writing 2008; and twenty-five of the forty writers in New Swiss Writing 2009. He has also edited selections of contemporary writing from Slovenia (with Janice Galloway), Latvia, and Scotland.
Born in Derry in 1961, but resident in Scotland since 1970, Donal McLaughlin is a freelance writer and translator (from German, mainly). Scottish PEN’s first ècrivain sans frontières and a recent recipient of the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award, Donal has also represented the City of Glasgow in both Berne (Scottish Writing Fellow) and Nuremberg (Hermann Kesten Fellow). Known for his short stories, a number of which have already appeared in translation, he has published the collections An Allergic Reaction to National Anthems and Beheading the Virgin Mary. His translation work includes collaborating with Chris Dolan on a stage version of Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader; Shards, a bilingual edition of the poetry of Stella Rotenberg (with Stephen Richardson); twenty-nine of the forty-five writers in New Swiss Writing 2008; and twenty-five of the forty writers in New Swiss Writing 2009. He has also edited selections of contemporary writing from Slovenia (with Janice Galloway), Latvia, and Scotland.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
A comic yet melancholic novel about truth, lies and storytelling, with a very special, sometimes unreliable narrator, translated from its innovative Swiss vernacular into an excellently written Scots translation.