Description

Fantasies, or are they premonitions, of a great wave, an impending apocalypse, threaten to swamp a young woman trapped in a slowly curdling relationship. From the outside it all looks good – the casually elegant apartment, the cocktail parties, the impressive, creative friends – but for all her supposed freedom, her unhappiness means she’s not living up to her side of the bargain. Why, everyone asks, is this not enough?Four hundred years earlier, formidable, irascible Deborah Moody marries, is disappointed, is widowed, loses a child, loses everything, and flees England for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She finds her fortune there, but if relying on a husband proved a mistake, independence doesn’t mean freedom from the dangerous vanities of men.Funny, cutting, and a savage indictment of the cheap consolations of meme-ified faux feminism, misplaced solidarity, and sacrifices for the supposed greater good, Cautery offers us two women (one based on a historical figure, one imagined) who share a final vision of true happiness – burning it all down and beginning again.

Publisher Review

"A searing, twisted feast." -Laura Fernandez "Lucia Lijtmaer is a powerful voice." -Enrique Vila-Matas , author of DUBLINESQUE "Lucia Lijtmaer constructs a story that is not only moving and imaginative but also indispensable." -Agustin Fernandez Mallo , author of NOCILLA TRILOGY "Lijtmaer's most ambitious novel since she began her literary career." -Infobae "A display of talent and skill. A novel that signals, wounds, accompanies and unsettles." -El Pais "In spite of its swift prose and constant play with black humour and an occasionally brutal mordacity, [the book] overflows with the complexity typical of one of the most perceptive socio-cultural analysts on the contemporary intellectual scene." -Contrapunto "The novel works like the surgical instrument that gives it its name: it is able to open the flesh and make a wound, and then cauterise it, causing a burning that heals as it vanishes." -eldiario.es "Masterful." -Clarin "The intelligent construction and well-crafted prose makes this a captivating story." -Diario Cine y Literatura CL