Favorita

Part hallucinatory road trip, part feminist revenge fantasy: a wild, furious and mischievous novel from an incendiary new European talent.





Fila's mother Magdalena caused chaos every time she appeared in her daughter's life. Fila hasn't seen her in years, not since she disgraced their family by advertising her brothel in the newspaper.





Now, news comes from Italy: Magdalena is dead. It's time for Fila to finally face her family history.





Fila collects her mother's ashes and sets out, urn in tow, to retrace the whirlwind life of the woman last known as Favorita.



Michelle Steinbeck is a Swiss writer of novels, poetry and plays; columns and reportage. Her works have been translated into several languages. With her debut novel My Father Was a Man on Land and a Whale in the Water (English translation by Jen Calleja) she toured around the globe, with readings on three continents. The novel was selected as Best Book of Edinburgh Book Festival 2019 by the Reading Club of Shotts prison, and caused a mild scandal in the German literary scene. ('If that's the new generation - God save us.') Steinbeck is a columnist for WOZ Die Wochenzeitung, and co-founder of the feminist writers' collective RAUF in Zurich. She is also a student of philosophy and sociology in Basel.



Jen Calleja is the author of Goblinhood: Goblin as a Mode, Vehicle, Dust Sucker, I'm Afraid That's All We've Got Time For, and Serious Justice. She has translated works by authors including Wim Wenders, Gregor Hens and Michelle Steinbeck and was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize for her translation of The Pine Islands by Marion Poschmann. She is the publisher and co-founder of Praspar Press, which publishes Maltese literature written in English and English translation.