Latest news with #Eurotrash
The Spinoff
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending June 20
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books' stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60) Spot New Zealand's former prime minster on this week's New York Times bestseller list. 2 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) The un-put-downable alternate history that explores some of life's biggest questions, including what does it mean to have a soul? Can a human ever not have one? 3 Eurotrash by Christian Kracht (Serpents Tail, $30) Auckland really loves this hectic mother-son roadtrip novel. 4 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38) Everett's biggest book yet is his stunning, funny and profound retelling of Huckleberry Finn. 5 Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum (Bloomsbury, $25) Cosy and charming and perfect for a long Matariki weekend. 6 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin, $26) This year's winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction. One of the most exquisite novels you'll read this year: it is moving, sexy and surprising. 7 Butter by Asako Yuzuki (4th Estate, $35) The smash hit novel based on a true crime story of a serial killer who lured her victims in with stunning food. 8 A Dim Prognosis by Ivor Popovich (Allen & Unwin, $38) An utterly gripping, energetic memoir from Dr Popovich. Revealing! See The Spinoff this weekend to read an excerpt from this brilliant book. 9 Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Random House, $38) Vuong's second novel. 10 King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby (Hachette, $38) A fiery crime novel. Here's the blurb: 'Roman Carruthers left the smoke and fire of his family's crematory business behind in his hometown of Jefferson Run, Virginia. He is enjoying a life of shallow excess as a financial adviser in Atlanta until he gets a call from his sister, Neveah, telling him their father is in a coma after a hit-and-run accident. When Roman goes home, he learns the accident may not be what it seems. His brother, Dante, is deeply in debt to dangerous, ruthless criminals. And Roman is willing to do anything to protect his family. Anything. A financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, Roman must use all his skills to try to save his family while dealing with a shadow that has haunted them all for twenty years: the disappearance of their mother when Roman and his siblings were teenagers. It's a mystery that Neveah, who has sacrificed so much of her life to hold her family together, is determined to solve once and for all. As fate and chance and heartache ignite their lives, the Carruthers family must pull together to survive or see their lives turn to ash. Because, as their father counselled them from birth, nothing lasts forever. Everything burns.' WELLINGTON 1 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60) 2 Towards Modernism: Walter Cook Collection at Te Papa by Justine Olsen (Te Papa Press, $75) This handsome new publication celebrates the Walter Cook Collection of Decorative Arts (held at Te Papa) and the ceramic, glass and metal objects therein. 3 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) 4 It's A Bit More Complicated Than That by Hannah Marshall (Allen and Unwin NZ, $25) A brilliant new YA novel from a huge new talent. Here's the blurb: 'Zelle and Callum used to be best friends, but they haven't spoken in three years: not since the tragedy that wrenched them apart, and Zelle moved away. But now Zelle is back, and their lives are about to get a whole lot more complicated. Zelle is in denial about her alcohol use that threatens to spiral out of control, and she's deeply annoyed at having to leave the city. Callum's future is thrown into jeopardy after both a disastrous uni interview and his budding romance turning sour. But they can't keep running from the past forever, and circumstances force them to examine their grief and guilt and find a way through.' 5 A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan (Allen and Unwin NZ, $37) 'Trevelyan's narrator is 10 years old. She's unnamed until the very end of the book (I won't reveal it here: best to find out for yourself). It's this naive perspective that makes A Beautiful Family both easy to read and impossible to put down. The narrator's innocence is pitted against several disturbing factors, all orbiting her summer in various shapes and shades, and it's that persistent dance of disturbances that creates the sustained and unrelenting tension in the novel.' Read more of Claire Mabey's review on The Spinoff, right here. 6 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin, $26) 7 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) 'I don't want to say that Delirious is the pinnacle of what Damien can do because that would be like putting a curse on his future work. But I am going to say it's almost impossible for me to imagine how he could do better. I think this is a great book – Great with capital G.' Even before Delirious won this year's Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, Elizabeth Knox was rapturous about Wilkins' beautiful novel. 8 Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq (Scribe, $37) Shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. 'In the twelve stories of Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Published originally in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023, praised for their dry and gentle humour, these portraits of family and community tensions testify to Mushtaq's years as a journalist and lawyer, in which she tirelessly championed women's rights and protested all forms of caste and religious oppression. Written in a style at once witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating, it's in her characters – the sparky children, the audacious grandmothers, the buffoonish maulvis and thug brothers, the oft-hapless husbands, and the mothers above all, surviving their feelings at great cost – that Mushtaq emerges as an astonishing writer and observer of human nature, building disconcerting emotional heights out of a rich spoken style. Her opus has garnered both censure from conservative quarters as well as India's most prestigious literary awards; this is a collection sure to be read for years to come.' 9 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38) 10 The Māori Millionaire by Te Kahukura Boynton (Penguin, $35) 'Te Kahukura Boynton is Māori Millionaire, and her debut book is here to help. Learn how to make money by clearing debt, saving for an emergency, finding work and increasing your salary, and even starting your own business and investing in shares and yourself. With tips on building better habits with your money and your life, Māori Millionaire is the positive mindset change you might be missing.' So goes the blurb.
Extra.ie
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
What is Virgin Island? New reality TV series has viewers 'astounded'
Channel 4's new show Virgin Island is exactly what you think it is. The show, which follows young virgins as they explore sex and intimacy for the first time, has been a firestorm on Twitter (X), particularly after a clash between two of the *ahem* 'participants' in this latest social experiment. Virgin Island, Channel 4's new show, follows virgins on an island as they try to open up on intimacy. Pic: Channel 4 From the channel that brought us Eurotrash and Naked Attraction, Virgin Island is not the US territory that became The Islands once Chuck Norris visited them, but rather a documentary series following young people who've never had sex as they explore the daunting world of intimacy. Alongside sex coaches (how do I get that job, AM I RIGHT LADS!?), the show is actually quite sex positive; with the virgins heading to bootcamp to address issues that they may have surrounding intimacy, physically or mentally, with them hopefully being able to lose their virginity once the camp is over. The methods the coaches use are unorthodox, to say the least — including seeing the participants sharing their hottest sexual fantasies, feeding each other bananas while blindfolded, and stripping naked and fondling each other. Yes, really. The show has divided viewers, particularly during the sexier scenes — with one person writing on Twitter 'It feels wrong to be watching this.' 'Anyone else a bit creeped out by this show?' another wrote, while others came with the jokes — as one shared a clip of Jay from the Inbetweeners claiming 'I went to virgin island as an international sex coach,' while another pitched the show as 'Imagine a cross between 'The Undateables' and 'SAS Who Dares Wins.' You've got Virgin Island.' Others were on board with the show, as one wrote 'That was an absolutely excruciating watch – see you all tomorrow,' while another summed it up: writing 'Virgin Island is the most unbelievable television I've ever seen. I'm astounded that this has been commissioned and I'm going to watch every single episode.' Virgin Island is the most unbelievable television I've ever seen. I'm astounded that this has been commissioned and I'm going to watch every single episode — Dead Men Tom (@DeadMenTom) May 13, 2025 So why is it so cringeworthy and controversial? Well, despite the fact that watching a bunch of inexperienced 20-somethings as a premise in and of its own is a horrifying premise usually fit for an American Pie film, one of the interactions between participants Jason and Charlotte was incredibly awkward when they were tasked with massaging each other. Charlotte went first, and while such an activity is meant to be fun and sensual, she complained about how bored she was, and commented on Jason's stretch marks, saying: 'Why do you have these horrible stretch marks? It looks painful. It looks like you got scratched.' Charlotte abruptly stopped due to her boredom, leading Jason to start massaging her arm — and since everybody's a critic, Charlotte commented 'Okay, why are you focused on one area? You need to go up and down.' Charlotte. Pic: Channel 4 Jason kept trying, applying more baby oil during the arm massage (?) with Charlotte saying that he should do so with more thumb movement, before conceding, 'Jesus Christ, what are you doing?' before he stopped. Jason didn't help himself, however, mimicking a sexual act while cupping her arm (…) and saying 'that's how you should do it' — which caused Charlotte to immediately say 'okay, now I definitely want you to stop.' Jason. Pic: Channel 4 Heading back to the retreat, they had two veeery different reactions to the massage — with Charlotte saying that it was 'meh,' while Jason mocked Charlotte's comments about his massage techniques and his stretch marks, saying 'Maybe not being berated a lot would have felt nice.' Virgin Island airs every Monday on Channel 4, and can be watched back on the Channel 4 app.
The Hindu
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Review of Christian Kracht's Eurotrash, longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025
Some of the funniest and most poignant moments in Christian Kracht's Eurotrash (translated from the German by Daniel Bowles) involve bodily fluids. A bored cab driver distracted by his own snotty nose. A mother recalling a romantic rendezvous from her youth in graphic detail, much to her son's discomfiture. But my personal favourite is when after a fierce argument between the protagonist (an authorial stand-in called Christian, a German novelist) and his mother, the former still has to empty out her colostomy bag because of course he does. This scene is the perfect example of the tonality Kracht uses wonderfully throughout the novel — acerbic wit mixed with bitterness and self-loathing but also an undertone of undeniable tenderness. Much of the novel, longlisted for this year's International Booker Prize, takes place on a road trip across the characters' native of Switzerland. Christian and his mother belong to a family that has made their fortune via a supremely shady armaments business. His grandfather, even more damningly, was a Nazi officer in the infamous secret police known as SS. The formidable, eccentric Mama Kracht, meanwhile, is very old, unfathomably rich, and likes to mix alcohol with prescription pills. When this propensity lands her in a psych ward, Christian feels like his proposed trip is a way to exorcise the family ghosts. The duo starts to give away the family's ill-gotten wealth during their road trip, just handing out cash from a plastic bag in the car. Behind the radicalisation As one might surmise from a plot like this, both German nationalism as well as German denial-of-history are very much on trial here. In the very first chapter, Kracht condemns the 'complete failure of the denazification process' when it came to his SS grandfather. The novel is devastating — and devastatingly funny — when it's absolutely tearing down legacies and reputations, bursting the balloon-egos of the Kracht family. For example, Christian tells the reader that upon his grandfather's death, a great deal of BDSM paraphernalia was discovered among his things. Bitterly, he daydreams about his late grandfather introducing racialised Nazi pseudo-science even into these 'clandestine cellar trysts' with very young Icelandic women. 'For only they, this old man, my grandfather, had thought, could adequately represent the Nordic ideal. The Norwegians, the Germans, the Danes were too weak — no, it had to be Icelanders, girls whom he would invite to his home as au pairs, to Sylt, girls in whose blood the sacred Edda sang eternally.' Black humour The translation by Daniel Bowles is first rate, and often comes up with an unsettling metaphor or simile that absolutely nails the tragicomic tonality of the book. Besides, Kracht is obsessed with the workings of language which is a through line Bowles picks up on pretty quickly. This harmony between writer and translator manifests itself in an incendiary passage about the German language. 'It was always language itself, the liberation and simultaneous domination of the spastic glottis, that singular enigma which lay in the proper sequence of syllables. And it was always, then, the German. It had always been the German language. It had always been the scorched earth, the sufferings of ill-treated earth itself, war and the burning old city and the vegetable fields made infertile outside it. It had always been the ghetto purged with the flamethrower. It had always been the tailored, pale gray uniforms, the attractive blond officers with their ice-cube-filled gullets, whispering, smiling.' With amusing nods to Shakespeare and Flaubert classics, not to mention the sociological theories of Guy Debord, Eurotrash is an immensely entertaining, erudite disavowal of nationalistic chest-thumping and ahistorical amnesia. It missed the International Booker shortlist — narrowly, I am sure — but is nevertheless highly recommended for those who enjoy their humour pitch-black. The reviewer is a writer and journalist working on his first book of non-fiction. Eurotrash Christian Kracht, trs Daniel Bowles Hachette India ₹499
