An appeal of the writing of this translated work is that the central concept of this work is that the subject matter is sex, but that does not necessarily translate to being erotic. These are not scenes written to arouse or appeal to the reader in a romantic sense, but it is a man describing his experiences in a letter written to his sister, Cordelia, while also trying to get her to confess her own. We, as the reader, only read from his perspective as we have no insights to her answering letters, which Hilst uses this one sided conversation expertly as a tool of storytelling.

The result is the story feels somewhat meandering and chaotic, but I do believe this is an intentional layout. If someone wants a crisp, tight story, then Letters from a Seducer is probably not a work for you. That being said, it was easy to get lost in the rambling of the arranged letters to tell a story that, without the layers of pornographic and sexual content, really does not have much. The presence of sex is vital, but also with its copious nature is able to exhibit that there is not a message or moral stance within. Definitely one of those books where the reading experience is the most important thing to consider, and not every novel needs to be focused on the content of the story being told. If you would like to let your mind wander and ride the waves of prose, pick up this translation!

Still reading but I will come back over time to adjust the feedback .. once you get over the incest, it’s not a bad book, it’s very erotic and I’m very heavy on the very. i took a chance on the book on the book and I’m really hoping that they just move away from that

UPDATE: Yeah, that incest theme went throughout the book, there were parts of it where I'm sure if I wasn't so taken up with the incest part, would have been a decent read, this is on me. Incest aside, I found it very difficult to read the book like the writing in my head was just all over the place and I had to reread it a couple times to try to understand what was even happening

Overall not as exciting and interesting as I was hoping.
It had a few good parts, but failed to keep my attention.
Maybe my brain isn't cut out for this?

Unfortunately, the download for this book did not work properly and the text on a page was not in the right place, making it totally unredable.

Okay this could have been my fault but I had a hard time reading this one. Based on the description I was aware of the content I’d be reading but the formatting and the writing wasn’t for me. That took me out of the reading experience. I’m not sure if it’s the translation to English that also made some of it confusing but some of that also made the content hard to digest.

3.5/5 stars

You have to take this book for what it is. It’s hideously dark in light tones. Hilst rivals, or perhaps surpasses, Anaïs Nin in her treatment of the taboo; sodomy, cannibalism. Incest, a predominant topic of this book, especially the epistolary section, is not shied away from. The biting, witty jabs of a jealous brother writing his sister erotically can only be written in such a way: Hilst achieves this.

There is something to be said for the strength of Karl’s epistolary section as opposed to Tiu’s writings: I wished that the letters had taken up more of the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Pushkin Press Classics for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Unfortunately I was unable to finish this. This wasn’t for me in the slightest, I didn’t like the writing and couldn’t really get passed the first few pages.