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Fiction Absurdist

All You Can Kill

by (author) Pasha Malla

Publisher
Coach House Books
Initial publish date
Oct 2024
Category
Absurdist, Black Humor, Satire
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781552454862
    Publish Date
    Oct 2024
    List Price
    $24.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781770568174
    Publish Date
    Oct 2024
    List Price
    $17.95

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Description

White Lotus meets Shaun of the Dead in this absurdist take on the wellness retreat.

Our narrator and his accidental companion, K. Sohail, find themselves on an island wellness retreat impersonating the Dhaliwals, who have probably been killed in a helicopter crash. After being welcomed by Jerome the robot, the intrepid imposters eagerly partake of the all-you-stomach buffet, the motivational speechifyings of self-help guru Brad Beard, and Professor Sayer's uncomfortably erotic couples counselling.

But things quickly take an ominous turn when an excursion to a nearby deserted village reveals a guillotine and a haunted chapel. And then one of the retreaters is murdered and the real Dhaliwals show up. Accusations, counter-accusations, and counter-counter-accusations are made, until the whole retreat is caught up in a bizarre trial.

In All You Can Kill, Pasha Malla, with his inimitable absurdist style, collides horror and humour into an utterly unforgettable satire.

"Smart, hilarious, original, All You Can Kill is a feverish, one-of-a-kind, unhinged journey into the absurd shams of modern life. No one writes satire, or anything else, like Pasha Malla." – Iain Reid, author of We Spread

"Malla is a fabulously gifted writer." – Publishers Weekly

"I don’t really know how Malla gets away with what he does … but it is astounding to watch him do it." – The Rumpus

 

About the author

Pasha Malla's first collection of short stories, The Withdrawal Method, a Globe and Mail and National Post book of the year, won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the Trillum Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize (Best First Book, Canada & Caribbean) and longlisted for the Giller Prize. A frequent contributor to The Walrus, the Globe and Mail and CBC radio, he is also the winner of an Arthur Ellis Award for crime fiction, two National Magazine Awards for humour writing, and has twice had stories included in the Journey Prize anthology. He was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, grew up in London, Ontario, and now lives in Toronto, Ontario. His most recent novel is People Park from House of Anansi.

Pasha Malla's profile page

Editorial Reviews

"All You Can Kill is an intricate moral fable, but it steps deep into the thorny briars of spiritual and economic disadvantages." – Kevin Jagernauth, Literary Review of Canada

"[A] wild novel that despite its impossible strangeness manages to capture something true about how we process the chaos of modern life." – Alex Good, The Toronto Star

"In Pasha Malla’s fourth novel, a narrator and his accidental companion find themselves impersonating a purportedly dead couple at an island wellness retreat. But the holidaying turns dark when a guillotine and a haunted chapel are revealed on an excursion to a nearby deserted village – followed by the murder of a guest and the arrival of the impersonated couple." – Cassandra Drudi, Quill & Quire 'Fall Fiction Preview'