Book description
'Went out, got pissed. Same shit, different day.'
Aberalaw, a tiny South Wales valley village where nobody ever arrives
and nobody ever leaves. The new police chief has declared war on
recreational drugs, resulting in an eighteen-month drought. The
party-loving wives and girlfriends of local punk band, The Boobs, are
getting desperate, both for drugs and thrills: Ellie, factory girl with
dreams of a better life in New York; Rhiannon, hairdresser with a taste
for violence and designer clothes and Siân, unappreciated, obsessive
compulsive mother of three. Into their lives, enter the languid dark
stranger, Johnny: Englishman, drug dealer and shameless seducer. In the
space of just a few months, three women's lives will be changed forever.
Prize-winning writer, Rachel Trezise, dissects the morals and mores of a
small Welsh village community with a scalpel-sharp pen and an incisive
wit. Praise for Sixteen Shades of Crazy:
'This anti-romantic portrayal of modern valley life rings with musical
dialogue and hangover humour.' THE INDEPENDENT
'Trezise opens up the lives of her characters with surgical skill,
making you wince as well as laugh.' THE WESTERN MAIL
'We in the know have come to expect brilliance from Rachel Trezise, and
Sixteen Shades of Crazy doesn't disappoint. This is a powerful,
unflinching and extremely funny novel. It's a beauty.'DAN RHODES
'Seamless and thoroughly enjoyable…A keen observer of contemporary
culture, Trezise has penned yet another winner.' THE SUN-HERALD
'Sixteen Shades of Crazy is a dirty but Day-Glo slice of modern Valleys
life.' NEW WELSH REVIEW
'written with great energy and verbal skill and its characters … are
immediately engaging.' SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
'Trezise sings a sharp and suffocating song.' THE AGE
'On the one hand Sixteen Shades of Crazy finds Trezise sticking to her
literary award-winning formula; unflinching yarns about the lifestyles,
aspirations and collective hustle of working class characters
(caricatures you might think on occasion) from her native Welsh valleys.
On the other, her use of multiple narrative voices - switching between
three women whose friendship seems fuelled by convenience rather than
closeness - ramps up the interest factor of an already highly readable
book.' BUZZ MAGAZINE
Praise for Rachel Trezise:
'Trezise is an outstanding young writer, with a wonderfully
sharp,cynical take on contemporary Wales.'THE TIMES
'The new face of literature.'HARPERS & QUEEN
'A major new literary talent.'THE WESTERN MAIL
'Trezise writes with an irresistible self-indulgence…the same complete
command of the English language as the heavyweights of contemporary
fiction.'THE BIG ISSUE Rachel Trezise was born in the Rhondda Valley,
Wales. Her first novel, In and Out of the Goldfish Bowl, was a winner of
the Orange Futures Prize. Her short fiction collection, Fresh Apples,
won the EDS Dylan Thomas Prize and her rock travelogue, Dial M for
Merthyr, was published in 2007. Her work has been translated into
several languages. She is married and still lives in Wales.
