Lucrecia and Mishima Tuvache run a business that´s both unusual and lucrative, "The Suicide Shop" whose slogan clearly states its purpose: Have you failed in life? With us, you´ll succeed in death! The Tuvache family, then, are true suicide professionals. Their hatred of life, which is both their pride and their brand, is passed down from generation to generation. So two of their children, Vincent and Marilyn, depressed and obsessed with the idea of death, are their parents´ worthy heirs. Unfortunately, their youngest, Alan, is not like the others. To be honest, they despair of him. Despite the gloomy atmosphere that prevails in the shop, and all the reasons his parents give him to lose hope, Alan can´t help seeing life through rose-tinted glasses…
The Tuvache family offers a wide range of methods for ending an unhappy life. Mishima spiritedly makes the point: “Since we only die once, the moment should be unforgettable.” With their keen professionalism, the Tuvaches are well aware they´ll never see their clients again, so their high-end product guards against amateurism; with them it´s “death or your money back”. It goes without saying the business extends no credit and offers no loyalty card. But it does let each person choose a death that suits them: hara-kiri for sporty types, poison (more romantic) for women, breezeblock for jumping out of windows. No home visits, however; the Tuvaches are not murderers.
Their clients come to them for a variety of reasons: teenagers unable to get over an unhappy love affair, teachers terrorised by their pupils, football fans desperate after their team´s defeat…
Only Alan, the Tuvache´s youngest, is a fly in the ointment. Unlike his depressive brother and sister, the boy is happy and full of life. When a plane crashes, causing countless deaths, Alan is overjoyed for the survivors. All day long he hums “Don´t worry, be happy”. And suddenly Marilyn changes her tune: she falls in love with the caretaker of one of the cemeteries she frequents. When this man turns up at the shop one day, she refuses to administer the poison which would end his life. Could Alan´s happiness and optimism be contagious?
The Suicide Shop is a funny and inventive novel of corrosive black humour. Above all it´s a delightful, impertinent fable, paradoxically full of life.
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