The Folly [Paperback]

A vacant patch of South African veld next to the comfortable, complacent Malgas household has been taken over by a mysterious, eccentric figure with a plan. Fashioning his tools out of recycled garbage, the stranger enlists Malgas's help in clearing the land and planning his mansion. Slowly but inevitably, the stranger's charm and the novel's richly inventive language draws Malgas into the plan and he sees, feels and moves into the new building. Then, just as remorselessly, all that seemed solid begins to melt back into air.http://quarterlyconversation.com/unlearning-the-art-of-getting-lost-the-fiction-of-ivan-vladislavic

As the project billows to fantastical and unstable proportions, the novel’s social realism swells into magical realism. The house becomes a literal castle in the air—evidence that neither messy reality nor imagination can be accounted for by blueprints. — Hermione Hoby, The New Yorker

A slim, symbolic novel with allegorical overtones. . . It's clear the author wants us to focus on the ideal rather than the real, and his stylistic playfulness pulls us into his vision, much as Malgas is pulled into Nieuwenhuizen's. Playful fiction with a corresponding (and paradoxical) seriousness of intent. — Kirkus Reviews

[A] heady, lively, and darkly surreal novel by South African writer Vladislavic. . . Vladislavic’s cryptic, haunting tale echoes Jorge Luis Borges and David Lynch, drawing readers into its strange depths. — Publishers Weekly

The Folly, Vladislavić’s first novel...plays out like a berserk blend of fairy tales, the plays of Samuel Beckett, and the films of Jacques Tati... Vladislavić ushers the reader into a strange andlS0