Philosophical Toys – A Novel

Nina, a drifter from southern Spain comes to London in search of experience, only to find that the strangest of stories is hiding in her father's loft in Almer?a...A playfully concocted, fast-paced novel committed to the irresistible pleasure of reading, both a celebration and a critique of our relationship to objects (from fetishes, to curios, to commodities, to objectum sexuality, to our becoming cyborgs through our addiction to technology), "Philosophical Toys" travels through different times, countries and experiences as chance leads Nina to encounter time and again the enigmatic nature of things, which end up transforming her into that most rare of species: a female philosopher.Witty and elegiac, "Philosophical Toys" takes the reader on a tour of fetishism, late capitalist culture, Bu?uels films, psychoanalysis, Alzheimer's disease, as well as the avatars of belonging to two cultures, an experience increasingly shared by a myriad of expatriates.

Susana Medina was born in Hampshire, England, in 1966 to a German mother of Czech origin and a Spanish father. Her family moved to Spain in 1968, where she was raised. She writes both in Spanish, her native language, and English. In 2012, she published Red Tales Cuentos rojos to critical acclaim. She has been awarded several literary prizes, was featured in Best European Fiction 2014, and has also been recognized for her work in film and mixed media. Philosophical Toys is her first novel to appear in English.