Bina

Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020

'Insightful. Inventive. Hilarious. Genius' EIMEAR MCBRIDE

'Bina is fiction of the rarest and darkest kind, a work whose pleasures must be taken measure for measure with its pains' RACHEL CUSK

'A captivating look at female friendship' MAIL ON SUNDAY

My name is Bina and I'm a very busy woman. That's Bye-na, not Beena. I don't know who Beena is but I expect she's having a happy life. I don't know who you are, or the state of your life. But if you've come all this way here to listen to me, your life will undoubtedly get worse. I'm here to warn you . . .

So begins this 'novel in warnings' - an unforgettable tour de force in the voice of an ordinary-extraordinary woman who has simply had enough. Through the character of Bina, who is writing out her story on the backs of discarded envelopes, Anakana Schofield filters a complex moral universe filled with humour and sadness, love and rage, and the consolations, obligations and mysteries of lifelong friendship. A work of great power, skill, and transformative empathy from a unique and astonishing writer.

“Insightful. Inventive. Hilarious. GeniusAnakana Schofield's Bina is a fiction of the rarest and darkest kind, a work whose pleasures must be taken measure for measure with its pains. Few writers operate the scales of justice with more precision, and Schofield is no less exacting in what she chooses to weigh. The novel's themes - male violence, the nature of moral courage, the contemporary problems of truth and individuality, the status of the female voice - could hardly be more timely or germane. Schofield's sense of injustice is unblinking and without illusion, yet her writing is so vivacious, so full of interest and lust for life: she is the most compassionate of storytellers, wearing the guise of the blackest comedianIntimate, disarming, and riotous, Bina is a searing exploration of one woman's soul that unwinds like a reluctant confession. Whether Bina is rescuing a ne'er-do-well from a ditch, taking a hammer to a plane or considering the dark request of her best friend, Schofield has created a compelling, practical everywoman - someone who has had enough and is ready to make a spectacleEccentric cautionary tales and colourful memories . . . A captivating look at female friendship and how women's voices go unheard - Mail on Sunday (Best New Fiction)”

Insightful. Inventive. Hilarious. Genius Eimear McBride
Bina is a bitterly funny novel but one that carries moral weight. Ultimately much of its energy comes from the simple subversive act: making a woman's life matter, making her voice be heard -- Evie Wyld New York Times
A captivating look at female friendship and how women's voices go unheard -- Gwendolyn Smith Mail on Sunday
While Schofield's themes are transcendently bleak - so bleak that the bleakness must be the point - her style feels almost decadently addictive. Bina makes for great company; her obstinacy, like Bartleby's, is flecked with heroic resistance, and her complaints elicit a pleasing mixture of satisfaction and dread New Yorker
Anakana Schofield's Bina is a fiction of the rarest and darkest kind, a work whose pleasures must be taken measure for measure with its pains. Few writers operate the scales of justice with more precision, and Schofield is no less exacting in what she chooses to weigh. The novel's themes - male violence, the nature of moral courage, the contemporary problems of truth and individuality, the status of the female voice - could hardly be more timely or germane. Schofield's sense of injustice is unblinking and without illusion, yet her writing is so vivacious, so full of interest and lust for life: she is the most compassionate of storytellers, wearing the guise of the blackest comedian Rachel Cusk, author of Outline and Transit
Excellent . . . Painted with colour and wit, there emerges a whole host of absurdist characters clamoring for Bina's attention. The emotional core of the novel is Bina's relationship with her dear friend Phil . . . Their friendship is beautifully realised on the page, providing a life-raft both for Bina and the reader in the face of so much cruelty . . . [In Bina] we are given a beautiful, devastating tale about the tragedy of old age -- Lamorna Ash Times Literary Supplement
Intimate, disarming, and riotous, Bina is a searing exploration of one woman's soul that unwinds like a reluctant confession. Whether Bina is rescuing a ne'er-do-well from a ditch, taking a hammer to a plane or considering the dark request of her best friend, Schofield has created a compelling, practical everywoman - someone who has had enough and is ready to make a spectacle Eden Robinson, author of Son of a Trickster and Monkey Beach

Anakana Schofield is the author of the acclaimed, Giller Prize-shortlisted novel Martin John, which was also a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize in the UK, a New York Times Editors' Choice and named a best book of the year by the Wall Street Journal, Globe and Mail, National Post, Sunday Business Post, Toronto Star and Irish Times, among others. Her debut novel Malarky won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, the Debut-Litzer Prize for Fiction in the United States and was a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Her writing and reviews have appeared in the Guardian, Irish Times, Globe and Mail, National Post, London Review of Books blog, and The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020 'Insightful. Inventive. Hilarious. Genius' EIMEAR MCBRIDE ' Bina is fiction of the rarest and darkest kind, a work whose pleasures must be taken measure for measure with its pains' RACHEL CUSK 'A captivating look at female friendship' MAIL ON SUNDAY My name is Bina and I'm a very busy woman. That's Bye-na, not Beena. I don't know who Beena is but I expect she's having a happy life. I don't know who you are, or the state of your life. But if you've come all this way here to listen to me, your life will undoubtedly get worse. I'm here to warn you . . . So begins this 'novel in warnings' - an unforgettable tour de force in the voice of an ordinary-extraordinary woman who has simply had enough. Through the character of Bina, who is writing out her story on the backs of discarded envelopes, Anakana Schofield filters a complex moral universe filled with humour and sadness, love and rage, and the consolations, obligations and mysteries of lifelong friendship. A work of great power, skill, and transformative empathy from a unique and astonishing writer.

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