The Doll

Set somewhere in Europe, The Doll interweaves the stories of three couples in search of transcendence. At the center are two children, Cathy and Thomas, who travel to Spain to erect the largest doll in the world — a symbol of aspiration that diminishes as the work progresses. Grotesque descriptions of sex and drunkenness illustrate the futility of any form of striving toward a goal. With echoes of Lautréamont and Bellmer, The Doll is a swirl of languages, hallucinations, and visions that create a dreamlike atmosphere of mystical import. Called by Fay Weldon, "A visionary work, by an extraordinary and important young writer. As cultures and languages mix and merge, Tomin meets the subsequent literary challenge head on, and actually makes this reader hopeful about the future of the Novel," it became a cult classic in 1990s Prague .