Flesh-Coloured Dominoes

"Extraordinary and unforgettable characters" WORLD LITERATURE TODAY

"Rich and many layered . . . fascinating" CHRISTOPHER MOSELEY

When Baroness Valtraute von Bruegen's officer husband's body is severed in two she is delighted to find that the lower half has been sewn onto the upper body of the humble local Captain Ulste. She conceives a child only to see the return of her husband in one piece. What happens next is both indescribably funny and darkly painful.

A beautifully written Surrealist novel-cum-political allegory, Flesh-Coloured Dominoes transports the reader between 18th-century Baltic gentry and the narrator's life in the modern world. The connection between the two narratives gradually becomes clear in a mesmerising fantasy of love, lust, and loss as Skijuns creates a work of sublime art that is funny, moving, enlightening and philosophical in equal measure.

Translated from the Latvian by Kaija Straumanis

“'Skujins is a master at personae and a cosmopolitan writer, filling his landscapes with extraordinary and unforgettable characters' World Literature Today”

Skujins is a master at personae and a cosmopolitan writer, filling his landscapes with extraordinary and unforgettable characters World Literature Today

Zigmunds Skujin (born 1926, Riga) is a renowned and established Latvian author of prose, poetry and drama. His books are among the most widely read and published, many have been adapted for cinema and theatre, and translated into many languages. Skujin 's first short story appeared in 1948, and since then he has published numerous short stories, film scripts, plays, and essays. He is also outspoken on social, political, historical and moral issues, since his interests reach far beyond literature. More than seven million copies of Skujin 's works have been published in various languages. His writings have been collected and published in 10 volumes (the latest in 2011). Skujin is an Emeritus Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. He has also received the Latvian Annual Prize for Literature , and the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers Prize for his lifetime contribution (2007).

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