Kapka Kassabova's darkly evocative novel VILLA PACIFICA, will be published by Alma Books on 1 August 2011. Described as 'seductive and unsettling' by author Mary McCallam, VILLA PACIFICA was a Top 5 bestseller in New Zealand where it was published by Penguin NZ last year.
In the novel travel writer Ute and her husband Jerry travel to a remote area on the west coast of South America, and decide to visit a recently established eco retreat called Villa Pacifica. The resort, run by a group of eccentric expatriates, offers a luxuriant refuge - in the middle of an arid, poverty-stricken region - to an exotic menagerie of large cats, monkeys, giant turtles and birds of paradise rescued from traffickers. When a huge storm descends on the coast, travellers and locals are left to fend for themselves and as the hot-house world teeming below the surface of Villa Pacifica threatens to engulf them, Ute and her companions begin questioning themselves and their own sanity…
Alma publisher Elisabetta Minervini says: "I am truly excited to be publishing Kapka's new book, which kept me totally hooked from beginning to end. The description of the exotic paradise is perfect, and it made me want to go there."
Kapka Kassabova has travelled widely and won prizes for her travel writing. See here for her recent piece in the Guardian on Quito, Ecuador.
Alma have World English Language rights, and VILLA PACIFICA is also sold to Ciela in Kassabova's native Bulgaria.
Kapka Kassabova's memoir STREET WITHOUT A NAME, published by Portobello, won praise from Jan Morris, Clive James, Misha Glenny, Vesna Goldworthy and Pico Iyer. It was also shortlisted for the European Book Prize and the Authors' Club Dolman Travel Prize in 2009.
Portobello will publish Kapka Kassabova's memoir about tango TWELVE MINUTES OF LOVE: A TANGO STORY in November 2011. See here for a diary piece by Kapka in The Scottish Review of Books Diary on her year writing the memoir.
Praise for VILLA PACIFICA
Seductive and unsettling, the tropical world of VILLA PACIFICA has a primal howl at its core that echoes long after reading.' -- Mary McCallam, author of THE BLUE
'Tangled with darkness like its lush, decaying setting, VILLA PACIFICA had me gripped to the very end.' -- Emily Perkins
Praise for Kapka Kassabova
'If her finely pitched lyricism is the first thing that strikes you, the second is the richness of sympathy that lies behind it. She has already established a unique literary identity.' -- Clive James
'Like Isabel Allende… a gift for measured, eloquent, no-frills storytelling.' --Scotland on Sunday