An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life

Author: Paul Dalla Rosa
Format: Paperback, 128mm x 196mm, 200g, 240 pages
Published: Profile Books Ltd, United Kingdom, 2023

‘Curious and unflinching … deftly executed and cringingly funny’ Guardian’Truly excellent’ Brandon Taylor, author of Real Life, shortlisted for the 2020 Booker PrizeWhether working in food service or in high-end retail, lit by a laptop in a sex chat or by the camera of an acclaimed film director, or sharing a flat in the city or a holiday rental in Mallorca, the protagonists of the ten stories comprising Paul Dalla Rosa’s debut collection navigate the spaces between aspiration and delusion, ambition and aimlessness, the curated profile and the unreliable body.By turns unsparing and tender, Dalla Rosa explores our lives in late-stage Capitalism, where globalisation and its false promises of connectivity leave us further alienated and disenfranchised. Like the legendary Lucia Berlin and his contemporary Ottessa Moshfegh, Dalla Rosa is a masterful observer-and hilarious eviscerator-of our ugly, beautiful attempts at finding meaning in an ugly, beautiful world.’Voyeuristically addictive, funny, and deceptively simple’ Halle Butler, author of The New Me

Paul Dalla Rosa is a writer based in Melbourne, Australia. His stories have appeared in Granta, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, Meanjin and New York Tyrant. In 2019, his story ‘Comme’ was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Short Story Award. An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life is his debut collection.