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Hard Copy by Fien Veldman
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Hard Copy

A story of girl meets printer

$18.90

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Translator Hester Velmans
Length 5 hours 48 minutes
Language English
Narrators James Faulkner & Sarah Slimani

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Bloomsbury presents Hard Copy by Fien Veldman, read by Sarah Slimani and James Faulkner.

'A talented new voice worth paying attention to.' Irish Times
'Equal parts searing intelligence and madcap sweetness. Simply brilliant.' Jenny Mustard
'Many astute observations... very funny on the tedium of office life.' Irish Independent

This is a story of girl meets printer.

A customer service assistant spends her long workdays printing letters. Her one friend is the printer and, in the dark confines of her office, she begins to open up to him, talking about her fears, her past, her hopes and dreams.

To her, it seems like a beautiful friendship is blossoming. To her boss, it seems like sheโ€™s losing her mind.

Diagnosed with burnout and placed on leave, she faces severance and โ€“ worse โ€“ separation from her beloved printer. But sheโ€™s not about to give up on her only friend without a fight. And, it turns out, neither is heโ€ฆ

Weird, incisive and unforgettable, Hard Copy is perfect for fans of Sayaka Murata and Halle Butler.

Fien Veldman is the 2021 recipient of the Joost Zwagerman Essay Award for her essay โ€˜Not really making itโ€™, about growing up in a working-class neighbourhood in Leeuwarden. In 2018 she won the Elise Mathilde Essay Award for her essay โ€˜Borders, doors and eyes openโ€™. Hard Copy is her debut novel.

Audiobook details

Author:

ISBN:
9781035907984

Length:
5 hours 48 minutes

Language:
English

Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing

Publication date:

Edition:
Unabridged

Libro.fm rank:
#15,036 Overall

Genre rank:
#7,042 in Fiction

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Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

Reviews

'Many astute observations about loneliness [and] class attitudes... very funny on the tedium of office life.' A talented new voice worth paying attention to. Despite its whimsical premise, Hard Copy is at its heart a joyful, tender, and strangely relatable novel. With sharp, playful prose Veldman tells a story in equal parts searing intelligence and madcap sweetness. Simply brilliant. This novel has it all. It's smart, captivating, poignant, absurd, moving, and terribly funny. Intimate and surprising at every turn, Hard Copy's distinct narrative voice took me right in from page one. A truly one-of-a-kind novel: I loved it. Rounded with sharp observations and surprising humour, Hard Copy is an incisive commentary on social isolation โ€“ a young womanโ€™s desperate search for connection in these late-capitalist times. Dryly comic... You regularly wonder who is more disturbed here, the protagonist or society. A weird, understated and very well written book about a millennial meltdown A beautiful, at times absurdist and moving debut In clear, bright language, Fien Veldman accurately depicts a world, a social background, that eats its way through the individual... A novel like an autopsy. Absurdist and inventive. Fien Veldman knows how to deal with contemporary cultural phenomena, and she always approaches them astutely and surprisingly' Wondrous A beautiful book Hard Copy is a wonderfully entertaining novel about the struggle to build relationships when oneโ€™s formative years have already warped their foundation. In a world where machines steadily replace human labour, Veldman explores the search for connections that may not exist and a new, hopefully better reality... bizarre yet poignant' Expand reviews
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