Middle-class Problems

Debut short prose collection (Mansards). In 2019 received the Latvian Literature Award in the category „Best Debut”. (source)

„Although Haralds Matulis's debut book had been expected for quite some time, that has not harmed the brightness of his first appearance. For a long time Middle-class Problems was among those books whose absence was discussed about in late evenings and early mornings – bold and idiosyncratic literature, with a clear prose vision that is carried out with almost athletic directness, without any detours or sidesteps. Now it has come out, and one already wants to talk about hopes for a continuation. After all, this is well-crafted and interesting short prose that gives the reader what we expect from debut collections above all – freshness and proof of undeniable potential.” Vilis Kasims, laligaba.lv

„[I]t is in vain to look in the small book for a unified plot in the classical sense of this word or for separate little stories built as we might think they ought to be – with a beginning, middle and end. These fragments that somewhat resemble prose – story or screenplay sketches, rather than essays or reflections – are like flashes pulsating in an uneven rhythm, when a capricious projector beam from the darkness by good luck pulls out one or another detail of some unknown whole, making the reader after ninety pages wonder in confusion – what is it, that he has just read.” Bārbala Simsone, literatura.lv