'Tangled with darkness like its lush, decaying setting, Villa Pacifica had me gripped to the very end.'—Emily Perkins
A couple arrive in a dead-end coastal village somewhere in South America. The only place to stay is Villa Pacifica, part hotel and part animal sanctuary run by eccentric ex-pats. Travel guide-writer Ute and her husband Jerry are joined by an assortment of travellers: in-your-face American Max; sporty flight attendants from Australia; musicians Luis and Helga – all looking for something out of the ordinary. Ute begins to meet the locals and explore the villa's surrounds. She senses that the place taps into her most intimate fears. Its disturbances may well be beyond the rational mind. Soon, personalities and relationships begin to crack. When a huge storm descends on the coast, travellers and locals are thrown back on their own devices. The hot-house world that prowls below the surface of Villa Pacifica rises to engulf everyone. Madness begins to take hold.
An ever-present air of sensuality and danger haunts Kapka Kassabova's new novel. Villa Pacifica is an exotic romp through a place where the primal, spiritual and cerebral collide. This is a visceral, gripping story from one of New Zealand's most talented writers.
Kapka Kassabova, born in Sofia, Bulgaria, is an internationally published poet and the author of two previous novels, Reconnaissance and Love in the Time of Midas. She also writes for a number of New Zealand and international newspapers and magazines. Kassabova has been short-listed for the Montana New Zealand Book Awards and the recipient of the NZ Cathay Pacific Travel Writer of the Year award and Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Best First Book, South East Asia & South Pacific Region). Her memoir, Street Without a Name, was published in 2008.
