Overview
A razor-sharp tragicomedy of the rise and fall of a smalltown butcher dangerously devoted to his craft.
“A brilliant debut …Sarkar's prose is impressive, and he is a skilled storyteller.” —Het Parool
The butcher's trade is the only thing Rensing truly understands. He can tell just by looking at an animal whether it will be a good cut or a poor one, tender or tough. Often perplexed by his interactions with other people, even with his long-suffering wife Jacomine, he feels a bright sense of purpose wielding a cleaver and has a preternatural talent for sourcing the finest meat.
When his father dies and Rensing inherits the family business, he doggedly pursues a single aim: to bring his craft to new heights of perfection. But things are changing in his small Dutch town. While Rensing purchases wildly expensive cows in pursuit of the perfect cut, a new supermarket opens, luring his customers away with unprecedentedly low prices.
Meanwhile, Jacomine masters the art of accounting and, on getting to grips with the shop’s ledger, grows insistent in her demand for a new direction for the business. Growing increasingly desperate, Rensing weighs up the costs of adulterating his art—and begins to be drawn towards a more drastic solution.
Winner of two prestigious prizes in the Netherlands, Bullhead is a vividly imagined, perfectly crafted debut about an outsider whose lofty visions just won’t fit into the world around him.
“A brilliant debut …Sarkar's prose is impressive, and he is a skilled storyteller.” —Het Parool
The butcher's trade is the only thing Rensing truly understands. He can tell just by looking at an animal whether it will be a good cut or a poor one, tender or tough. Often perplexed by his interactions with other people, even with his long-suffering wife Jacomine, he feels a bright sense of purpose wielding a cleaver and has a preternatural talent for sourcing the finest meat.
When his father dies and Rensing inherits the family business, he doggedly pursues a single aim: to bring his craft to new heights of perfection. But things are changing in his small Dutch town. While Rensing purchases wildly expensive cows in pursuit of the perfect cut, a new supermarket opens, luring his customers away with unprecedentedly low prices.
Meanwhile, Jacomine masters the art of accounting and, on getting to grips with the shop’s ledger, grows insistent in her demand for a new direction for the business. Growing increasingly desperate, Rensing weighs up the costs of adulterating his art—and begins to be drawn towards a more drastic solution.
Winner of two prestigious prizes in the Netherlands, Bullhead is a vividly imagined, perfectly crafted debut about an outsider whose lofty visions just won’t fit into the world around him.
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