Gorgeous language and moments of beauty in a collection of stories set in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
Sarah
The Hole is a cross between Blood Meridian, Train Dreams, and Jean Genet’s works set in prisons. Yes, Revueltas fits all of that into into this little explosive seed. Reading it is about a four hour experience; one hour to read it and three hours to stare at a wall recovering from it.
Josh
Reading Bakic's stories is like sitting down in a chair with uneven legs right as you’re told the authorities are on their way, & this time, they're not bringing the robots. Unsettling in unsettling ways, Bakic's mix of realism with science fiction & fabulism occupies the uncanny valley between the recognizable & the unrecognizable, unsheathing the weirdness of daily life & presenting a picture of humanity that is unsettling because of how quickly you recognize it.
Josh
Pick this up for a collection reads like Grimm fairy tales by way of contemporary Argentina: mysterious, bizarre, and darkly funny. Samanta Schweblin's prose is spare and startling. It's the perfect book for a month of cold winter's nights!
Kate
Superior writing about a retired professor from East Berlin who unwittingly befriends homeless African refugees. Subtle layering of ancient and recent history, politics and cultures. All delivered in quite gestures and conversations. Outstanding reviews from across the globe. Book group gold.
Molly
In this dreamy, moody novel, Nobel Prize winner for literature (2014) Patrick Modiano takes a backward glance - combing autobiography and fiction - to his youthful days in Paris, his unorthodox childhood and his relationships with several mysterious women. Nathan
Superior writing about a retired professor from East Berlin who unwittingly befriends homeless African refugees. Subtle layering of ancient and recent history, politics and cultures. All delivered in quite gestures and conversations. Outstanding reviews from across the globe. Book group gold.
Molly
Easy to summarize, but impossible to explain Oraefi is a strange amalgamation of explorer’s tale, travelogue, historical fiction, collection of dramatic monologues, and celebration of place names. Ostensibly the story of a scholar who nearly dies while exploring a wasteland in Iceland, the story meanders through multiple layers and narrators like a stream flowing from the glacier to the forest to the sea. It’s a wild ride, unlike anything you’ve read.
Josh
How does history become mythology? How do people become legends? What are the borders of poetry and performance and what do we see when we swagger along those jagged edges? The Last Poets were real people; poets & performers at the very roots of hip hop who lived, suffered, and fought with America’s racism. Like the best biopics, Otten’s novel tells the stories of these specific lives in a way that speaks volumes about the world that surrounds them and us.
Josh
Who knew that a sci fi dystopian novel could be reminiscent of Dostoevsky or Tolstoy? Written under an oppressive Soviet State, WE is eerily relevant still. Powerfully human, Zamyatin's political novel could have been written yesterday to reflect on the world we live in.
Matthew
