‘Dalla Rosa has created a modern and close-to-home collection that may just earn him the title of Bard of the “terminally online”.’ — The Big Issue
‘Stories of lost souls, reality TV and anonymous sex make for vivid reading.’ —The Age
‘Deftly executed and cringingly funny’ — The Guardian
‘Dalla Rosa composes scenes with precision and elegance but something rough and brittle emerges from the sheen: hysterical dry humour, cutting observations about dissatisfaction and desire.’ — The Saturday Paper
‘An astounding capacity for acerbic characterization undergirds all these stories’ — Astra Magazine
‘An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life, is a darkly humorous exploration of class, sex, and shattered dreams’ — AnOther
Praise for An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life
‘Exciting… thrilling, exhilarating.’ —Christos Tsiolkas, author of 7 ½
‘Hilarious, brutal, warm and tender, filled with characters that are equal parts entitled and self-hating, ambitious and stagnant, flawlessly dressed and totally broke.’ —Abigail Ulman, author of Hot Little Hands
‘I love these voyeuristically addictive, funny, and deceptively simple stories. Paul Dalla Rosa has perfectly articulated the bizarreness of human isolation and human behaviour.’ —Halle Butler, author of The New Me
‘Truly excellent collection of short stories. You all should read it, both for Paul’s sharp, dry wit and also the taut beauty of his lines.’ —Brandon Taylor, author of Real Life
'How can these stories be so funny, dazzling, deep and dark? ' —Ronnie Scott, author of The Adversary
‘A knockout.’ —Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I’m Someone Else
'An existential prayer of a book that attempts to find meaning in a rapidly changing and absurdly disconnected, occasionally nightmarish, modern world.' —Oliver Mol, author of Train Lord
Whether 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, sharing a dangerous apartment in the city, a rooming house in China or a vacation rental in Mallorca, the protagonists of the ten stories comprising Paul Dalla Rosa's debut collection, An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life, 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.
Out May 31st (ANZ) and June 2nd (UK).