The Parties
May 2027 · Astra Publishing House
Ebook
320
Pages
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infoThis book will become available on May 25, 2027. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this ebook
A maximalist downtown party novel about insurgency and youthful revolutionary fervor, a paranoid and political meditation about intelligence services set on the brink of the collapse of the American empire
From a rising talent, an epic literary thriller for readers of Catherine Lacey's Biography of X and Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake.
The Parties is the story of K, a cokehead from a declassé Irish suburb in Buenos Aires with an extraordinary talent for languages. She moves to New York City as a young woman after being recruited by a mysterious university run by U.S. intelligence services that specializes in languages, controlled opposition, and counter-intelligence. As a twenty-something agent living in Chinatown, K infiltrates a new cohort of students that is organizing a hacker insurgency inspired by Latin American revolutionary guerrillas. She eventually becomes part of the conspiracy, known as The Great Translation, which aims to hack New York City’s government and make Spanish the city’s sole official language. The novel drifts from party to party in an irreverent, sensual, and Babelic sequence of violence and celebration.
Set in an alternative present where the U.S. is escalating military tensions with Iran and Mexico, The Parties is told in seven chapters, each split in three between a section in the present (which takes place over four days), a section in the past (over four years) and a section that reproduces intelligence memos about the group’s actions. In the past, K becomes involved with the insurgency, attempts to understand the group’s objectives and rises through the military and academic ranks as a result. She closely befriends two members of the group: Sascha, a Jewish, post-Soviet émigré from Brighton Beach who becomes an unwitting informant, and Lupe, a Mexican-Romanian woman who enamors K, confusing her and blurring her judgment. What started as a citywide prank soon turns bloody, posing questions about the ethics of guerrilla warfare and the limits of revolutionary violence. The present-day timeline takes place after the insurgency’s failure. The plot is triggered by the return of a raving, dangerous and mystical Sascha who haunts K and rehashes the dreams of a Latin American conquest of New York.
From a rising talent, an epic literary thriller for readers of Catherine Lacey's Biography of X and Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake.
The Parties is the story of K, a cokehead from a declassé Irish suburb in Buenos Aires with an extraordinary talent for languages. She moves to New York City as a young woman after being recruited by a mysterious university run by U.S. intelligence services that specializes in languages, controlled opposition, and counter-intelligence. As a twenty-something agent living in Chinatown, K infiltrates a new cohort of students that is organizing a hacker insurgency inspired by Latin American revolutionary guerrillas. She eventually becomes part of the conspiracy, known as The Great Translation, which aims to hack New York City’s government and make Spanish the city’s sole official language. The novel drifts from party to party in an irreverent, sensual, and Babelic sequence of violence and celebration.
Set in an alternative present where the U.S. is escalating military tensions with Iran and Mexico, The Parties is told in seven chapters, each split in three between a section in the present (which takes place over four days), a section in the past (over four years) and a section that reproduces intelligence memos about the group’s actions. In the past, K becomes involved with the insurgency, attempts to understand the group’s objectives and rises through the military and academic ranks as a result. She closely befriends two members of the group: Sascha, a Jewish, post-Soviet émigré from Brighton Beach who becomes an unwitting informant, and Lupe, a Mexican-Romanian woman who enamors K, confusing her and blurring her judgment. What started as a citywide prank soon turns bloody, posing questions about the ethics of guerrilla warfare and the limits of revolutionary violence. The present-day timeline takes place after the insurgency’s failure. The plot is triggered by the return of a raving, dangerous and mystical Sascha who haunts K and rehashes the dreams of a Latin American conquest of New York.
A maximalist downtown party novel about insurgency and youthful revolutionary fervor, a paranoid and political meditation about intelligence services set on the brink of the collapse of the American empire
From a rising talent, an epic literary thriller for readers of Catherine Lacey's Biography...
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About the author
Julia Kornberg was born in Buenos Aires in 1996 and lives in New York City. She is the award-winning author of Berlin Atomized, published by Astra House in 2024 and forthcoming in Spanish from Anagrama Publishing House in 2026. She writes fiction in Spanish and literary criticism in English. Her work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Drift, The Jewish Review of Books, and Bookforum, among other publications. Julia has a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese from Princeton University.
Julia Kornberg was born in Buenos Aires in 1996 and lives in New York City. She is the award-winning author of Berlin Atomized, published by Astra House in 2024 and forthcoming in Spanish from Anagrama Publishing House in 2026. She writes fiction in Spanish and literary criticism in English. Her ...
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