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Image courtesy of publisher's website.
y separately published work icon Maybe the Horse Will Talk single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 Maybe the Horse Will Talk
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'‘I am absolutely terrified of losing a job I absolutely hate.’

'Stephen Maserov has problems. A onetime teacher, married to fellow teacher Eleanor, he has retrained and is now a second-year lawyer working at mega-firm Freely Savage Carter Blanche. Despite toiling around the clock to make budget, he’s in imminent danger of being downsized. And to make things worse, Eleanor, sick of single-parenting their two young children thanks to Stephen’s relentless work schedule, has asked him to move out.

'To keep the job he hates, pay the mortgage and salvage his marriage, he will have to do something strikingly daring, something he never thought himself capable of. But if he’s not careful, it might be the last job he ever has…'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Notes

  • 'Paramount Television Studios in the US optioned Maybe the Horse Will Talk for adaptation into a TV series. (Books + Publishing 10 June 2020)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 2019 .
      image of person or book cover 5772849240387122700.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 352p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 1 October 2019.
      ISBN: 9780143781493 (trade pbk).
Alternative title: Et Si Le Cheval Se Mettait à Parler
Language: French
    • Paris,
      c
      France,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Laffont ,
      2021 .
      image of person or book cover 2077849918628585329.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Amazon
      Extent: 380p.
      Note/s:
      • Published September 23, 2021
      ISBN: 9782221247259

Other Formats

Works about this Work

Elliot Perlman : Maybe the Horse Will Talk Ann Skea , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , July 2020;

— Review of Maybe the Horse Will Talk Elliot Perlman , 2019 single work novel

'Elliot Perlman’s latest novel is a timely chronicle of lawyers and sexual harassment.'

Elliot Perlman Interview Samuel Elliott (interviewer), 2019 single work interview
— Appears in: Other Terrain , December no. 8 2019;
Taking the Fight to Corporate Culture Derek Hinckley , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Antipodes , vol. 33 no. 2 2019; (p. 441-443)

— Review of Maybe the Horse Will Talk Elliot Perlman , 2019 single work novel

'Elliot Perlman's novel Maybe the Horse Will Talk is a lively, quick-paced narrative of underdogs fighting against their corporate overlords. Wrapped in the shroud of social commentary, the novel succeeds on the backs of its compelling characters and the urgency of the situation in which they find themselves.'  (Introduction)

White Knight : Elliot Perlman's Misguided New Novel Chris Flynn , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 417 2019; (p. 43-44)

— Review of Maybe the Horse Will Talk Elliot Perlman , 2019 single work novel

'Elliot Perlman’s fourth novel is tentatively billed as a corporate satire and has a striking opening line: ‘I am absolutely terrified of losing a job I absolutely hate.’ The man in this all-too-familiar predicament is Stephen Maserov, a former English teacher turned lawyer. Maserov is a lowly second year in the Terry Gilliam-esque law firm Freely Savage Carter Blanche, which, apart from sounding like a character in a Tennessee Williams play, is home to loathsome dinosaurs in pinstripe suits and an HR department referred to as ‘The Stasi’.' (Introduction)

Elliot Perlman : Maybe the Horse Will Talk Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 2-8 November 2019;

— Review of Maybe the Horse Will Talk Elliot Perlman , 2019 single work novel

'Elliot Perlman’s new novel, Maybe the Horse Will Talk, centres on a fable that the protagonist, one Stephen Maserov, tells his sons. In the story a tyrannical king decides he no longer finds his jester funny. Realising his life is at risk, the jester offers the king a compromise. Give me a year and your best horse, he says, and I will show you something extraordinary. I will teach the horse to talk.' (Introduction)

Walking the Talk in Quest for Justice Felicity Plunkett , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 12 October 2019; (p. 24)

— Review of Maybe the Horse Will Talk Elliot Perlman , 2019 single work novel

'Elliot Perlman’s prose has a distinctive gait. The loping narrative of Maybe the Horse Will Talk, his captivating, compassionate fourth novel, is set in motion when protagonist Stephen Maserov wakes thinking: ‘‘I am absolutely terrified of losing a job I absolutely hate.” He is then catapulted along a path that could imperil or secure his career and relationships. This flick and skip of reiteration is something of a Perlman signature, conveying the idiosyncrasies of storytelling in its various forms, the palindromic pulse of agitated cognitive processes and the mental pacing of insomniac self-cross-examination.' (Introduction)

Elliot Perlman : Maybe the Horse Will Talk Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 2-8 November 2019;

— Review of Maybe the Horse Will Talk Elliot Perlman , 2019 single work novel

'Elliot Perlman’s new novel, Maybe the Horse Will Talk, centres on a fable that the protagonist, one Stephen Maserov, tells his sons. In the story a tyrannical king decides he no longer finds his jester funny. Realising his life is at risk, the jester offers the king a compromise. Give me a year and your best horse, he says, and I will show you something extraordinary. I will teach the horse to talk.' (Introduction)

White Knight : Elliot Perlman's Misguided New Novel Chris Flynn , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 417 2019; (p. 43-44)

— Review of Maybe the Horse Will Talk Elliot Perlman , 2019 single work novel

'Elliot Perlman’s fourth novel is tentatively billed as a corporate satire and has a striking opening line: ‘I am absolutely terrified of losing a job I absolutely hate.’ The man in this all-too-familiar predicament is Stephen Maserov, a former English teacher turned lawyer. Maserov is a lowly second year in the Terry Gilliam-esque law firm Freely Savage Carter Blanche, which, apart from sounding like a character in a Tennessee Williams play, is home to loathsome dinosaurs in pinstripe suits and an HR department referred to as ‘The Stasi’.' (Introduction)

Elliot Perlman : Maybe the Horse Will Talk Ann Skea , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , July 2020;

— Review of Maybe the Horse Will Talk Elliot Perlman , 2019 single work novel

'Elliot Perlman’s latest novel is a timely chronicle of lawyers and sexual harassment.'

Taking the Fight to Corporate Culture Derek Hinckley , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Antipodes , vol. 33 no. 2 2019; (p. 441-443)

— Review of Maybe the Horse Will Talk Elliot Perlman , 2019 single work novel

'Elliot Perlman's novel Maybe the Horse Will Talk is a lively, quick-paced narrative of underdogs fighting against their corporate overlords. Wrapped in the shroud of social commentary, the novel succeeds on the backs of its compelling characters and the urgency of the situation in which they find themselves.'  (Introduction)

Elliot Perlman Interview Samuel Elliott (interviewer), 2019 single work interview
— Appears in: Other Terrain , December no. 8 2019;
Last amended 15 Mar 2022 12:02:25
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