Author:Portia Da Costa
The Accidental Trilogy brings together three of renowned erotica author Portia Da Costa's most successful and seductive novels:
The Accidental Call-Girl
The Accidental Mistress
The Accidental Bride.
Follow innocent Lizzie's journey into the dark, erotic world of billionaire tycoon John Smith, into a life beyond her wildest dreams...
Bawdy baroque-punk prose of marvellous fluency, overlaid with a gloss of heavy-weight erudition... an astonishing achievement, little short of a masterpiece
—— William Dalrymple , Independent on SundayA gargantuan, dazzling fable by Britain's brightest young writer
—— Steven Poole , GuardianA story of adventure enthralling in its scope and inventiveness, by turns comic and horrific, zestful and elegaic, involving a reclusive order of monks whose church is slowly sliding into the sea; Renaissance Rome with its sexual license and political rivalries; war and atrocity in the Central Italian States; and a remote tribe in the West African rain forest. Running through this variegated fable is the search for the rhinoceros. The exuberance, the sheer proliferation of incident and scene, are disciplined and controlled by unerring narrative pace and cunning
—— Barry Unsworth , Daily TelegraphA truly fabulous piece of new British fiction
—— James Saynor , ObserverThe novel, a parody, sets itself up as a kind of Maoist Anna Karenina . . . At its core, Hard Like Water seeks to make a mockery of claims to political purity. As Hongmei and Aijun arouse each other with propaganda slogans and revolutionary citations, the novel pokes fun at how easily an ideology can be contorted to satisfy individual desires
—— Jennifer Wilson , New York TimesA piercing satire of Communism and the language of revolutions
—— Ángel Gurría-Quitana , Financial Times, *Books of the Year*Yan probes the darkness and absurdity of Chinese society and history with a sexy satirical tale of the Cultural Revolution as wrought in a small village . . . distinctive and punchy. Yan's exuberant and unflinching tragicomedy is undeniably appealing
—— Publishers WeeklySurreal and amusing, biting and fun
—— Caroline Overington , The AustralianA gritty, memorable story . . . Yan's study of power and class struggle becomes, in the end, a near-classic tragedy
—— Kirkus ReviewYan's signature biting wit creates another indelible work of bittersweet humor and socio-political insight
—— BooklistPredicted to become a new future classic . . . this is a powerful, multi-faceted book that questions everything from marriage to sexual desire, power and the dangers of hubris
—— Clara Strunck , BuroGao Aijun, the narrator of this boisterous novel, set during the Cultural Revolution, finds his life charmless: his village is like "a pool of stagnant water," and his wife makes him feel "a clump of cotton" in his throat. Then he meets a beautiful woman, also married, and, to attract her, sets out to lead the "revolution" in their village. In speech larded with Mao quotes and traditional maxims, Gao reveals how their romance, fuelled by the feverish political climate, pitches the village into ever-escalating extremism -- a years-long parade of self-advancing schemes culminating in an unthinkable end
—— New Yorker