Chiara Barzini - Whether she steers us through volcanic craters, antiquity’s sewers, or incestuous swimming pools, her stories are full of horror and comedy and wonderment for a world that is both grotesque and fantastical

Chiara Barzini, Sister Stop Breathing, Calamari Press, 2012.

«These kaleidoscopic arrangements of sentences and situations are of freakish originality and beauty. They are stories like smashed mirrored jewels, which we look into, recognize ourselves and others, then look closely again and realize we're staring at the delicate close markings of a flower. I found these stories to be like life—full of horror and comedy and wonderment for a world that is both grotesque and fantastical.»—Jonathan Ames
«The best thing to come out of Italy since espresso, and it opens your eyes and quickens your heart just as fast.»—Gary Shteyngart

«A Barzini fiction invites you into its strangeness with poetic and comic authority, and ushers you out before you have a chance to know what hit you. The fabular and the contemporary are tantalizingly conflated such that recognizable settings (Rome, California, Paris) open up into wondrous irreal worlds that entice the senses yet ingeniously elude one’s grasp. Whether she steers us through volcanic craters, antiquity’s sewers, or incestuous swimming pools, Barzini’s imagination, precision and wit make the ride worthwhile. Sister Stop Breathing is as inventive as it is provocative.»—Mary Caponegro

Chiara Barzini: Volcanoes

Chiara Barzini: First Babies


Chiara Barzini's web page