OVERSTAYING by Ariane Koch

Translated by Damion Searls

We’ve all had that awkward experience of inviting a guest into our homes only for them not to get the hint when it’s time to leave. If you haven’t, then you were probably the guest. Either way, it’s a universal experience. In Overstaying, Ariane Koch ratchets the the whole idea up to eleven, making for an unsettling, surreal and deeply odd little tale.

In an unnamed small Swiss town, an unnamed narrator happens upon an unnamed visitor and feels an instant connection. On a whim, she invites him to move in with her and they soon enter into a relationship of ever-shifting boundaries; roomies, friends, lovers, enemies, allies, pets, aliens. Hell, I was waiting for him to turn into a cockroach. As the visitor insinuates himself further into every aspect of her life, the line between their very selves blurs. Short, sharp chapters only serve to compound the sense of claustrophobia and dislocation.

Overstaying is a strange and difficult book (there are sentient vacuums) but one that will have you pondering the bounds of hospitality, the very idea of space and the porous nature of identity. But mostly, it’s just bonkers.

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Overstaying by Ariane Koch (Tr. Damion Searls)
Pushkin Press, 2024
202 pages