Efina: The Swiss List

T., an acclaimed but ageing actor, and Efina, a passionate theatergoer, are engaged in an obsessive love affair that careens from attraction to repulsion. They compulsively write letters—often to express their intense dislike of one another—which are sent or unsent, answered or unanswered. They meet, they break up, they marry, and they get divorced. They neither can live with nor without one another, and this impossible state of affairs lasts all their lives. In-between, there are other men and many other women, but throughout, the magic of the theater and the art of make-believe endure.

Efina is a tumultuous novel about art, love, disdain, and above all—obsession—told in a quirky, highly original style. Nöelle Revaz brings us an unapologetically dysfunctional yet honest relationship, detailing outrageous thoughts and absurd behaviors in clear and precise prose. What could have been a sad tale of failed love is delightfully transformed by Revaz into a masterpiece of dark humor.