Cafés - by Holly Pester (Paperback)

About the Book

An illuminating anti-epic poem, Cafés is a satirical search for utopias.

Book Synopsis

• The highly anticipated second poetry book by one of the UK's most innovative poets, following the Forward Prize shortlisted Comic Timing.
• A utopian, stylish and completely unique anti-epic long poem that moves through the history of the café space, exploring workers' rights, foodie culture, the importance of the third space and bohemian and artistic histories.
• A contribution to the growing body of contemporary literature around food and restaurant culture, for readers of Vittles, Ruby Tandoh, Rebecca May Johnson, and readers of caffs not cafes

Comps: Gunslinger by Ed Dorn, Fourth Person Singular by Nuar Alsadir, How to Wash a Heart by Bhanu Kapil.

Review Quotes

'A sad strange lyrical story of shame and displacement but whose strength will not let you go.'
― Sheena Patel, author of I'm a Fan (praise for The Lodgers)

'Holly Pester is a genius and The Lodgers gets into everything that matters.'
― Kate Briggs, author of The Long Form (praise for The Lodgers)

'Holly Pester makes the world sing. The song is written by Victoria Wood, and it's a happy-sad song about utopia. Figured not as a distant place but as a way of being with people and things, that might also be called friendship, that might also be called poetry. She reminds us that poetry is a social activity, an expression of faith in the possibility of connection - with other people, with the world, with happiness - that feels, in our historical moment, like a form of resistance.'
― Ben Eastham, author of The Floating World

'There is no one better than Holly Pester at communicating the eerie, sometimes hilarious and often hallucinatory experience of modern precarity. This is a novel for the age and for generation rent: a captivating and unforgettable account of how economic circumstance can lead to a feeling of being only half alive.'
― Nathalie Olah, author of Bad Taste (praise for The Lodgers)

'With tang and pith in every sentence, The Lodgers speaks to a generational epidemic of rootlessness and porous selfhood with vital wit and utter originality.'
― AK Blakemore, author of The Glutton (praise for The Lodgers)

About the Author

Holly Pester is a writer and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre, University of Essex. Her books and works include Ecloques for Idle Workers (BBC Radio and Distance No Object, 2018), Comic Timing (Granta, 2021), which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize, and The Lodgers (Granta, 2024).