By Corinne Hoex
Translated by Caitlin O'Neil
ISBN: 9781628973686
Publication Date: 03/01/2022
Every night when she goes to sleep, a woman dreams of erotic encounters with different men. She dreams of being the sponge squeezed to foaming in a gas station attendant's hand, and of twining her bare skin with a sea lion's thick pelt under the watchful eye of the sea lion trainer. From a gas station attendant to a sea lion trainer, a watchmaker to a teacher, a furrier to an astrologer, each evening's new encounter is more sensual and extravagant than the last.
Reviews
"Brought into English by Caitlin O’Neil, Corinne Hoex’s sensuous—and sensational—Gentlemen Callers is full of exquisite treats, rivaling Belgian compatriot Amélie Nothomb’s wit, humor, and imagination... it’s gems like this that remind me that there’s still much to discover from smaller, less heard-from countries within Europe. I would consider it scandalous if Hoex’s fiction is still unknown in the world literature canon ten years down the road." —Lee Yew Leong, Asymptote Journal
"The playful and surreal English-language debut collection from Belgian writer Hoex comprises a woman’s dreamlike erotic encounters ... Men don’t always satisfy the narrator, but the idea of them keeps renewing her desire. This carries the reader along with its abundant surprises." —Publishers Weekly
"a whimsical and sensual collection ... Hoex harnesses the female gaze, turning it upon men in every corner of the world, sometimes deceiving them by changing her form and having her way with them, not unlike the god Zeus." —Full Stop
"Evocative and erotic, Corinne Hoex’s Gentlemen Callers seduces its audience with dreamy vignettes." —Foreward
Biographical Information
Corinne Hoex (b. 1946) is an award-winning contemporary Belgian writer and member of the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium. She has, to date, published eight works of fiction and prose and over twenty works of poetry. Hoex has won several literary prizes, including the 2013 Prix Félix Denayer in recognition of her collection of work. She currently lives in Brussels.
Caitlin O'Neil has a master’s degree in French linguistics from The University of Texas at Austin. She is based in Minneapolis, where she is a publicist and copy editor. Gentlemen Callers is her first book-length translation.