Jagannath

paperback, 176 pages

Published Feb. 6, 2018 by Vintage.

ISBN:
978-1-101-97397-4
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4 stars (9 reviews)

An award-winning debut story collection by Karin Tidbeck, author of Amatka and heir to Borges, Le Guin, and Lovecraft.

A child is born in a tin can. A switchboard operator finds himself in hell. Three corpulent women float somewhere beyond time. Welcome to the weird world of Karin Tidbeck, the visionary Swedish author of literary sci-fi, speculative fiction, and mind-bending fantasy who has captivated readers around the world. Originally published by the tiny press Cheeky Frawg--the passion project of Ann and Jeff VanderMeer--Jagannath has been celebrated by readers and critics alike, with rave reviews from major outlets and support from lauded peers like China Mieville and even Ursula K. Le Guin herself. These are stories in which fairies haunt quiet towns, and an immortal being discovers the nature of time--stories in which anything is possible.

3 editions

Review of 'Jagannath' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I really enjoyed a couple of the first stories - Beatrice and Rebecca - so I was feeling pretty good! But then I didn’t really care about the rest of them. A lot of folks mention the titular story Jagannath as a strong one, but I didn’t care for it much either.

Oddly, I really enjoyed Afterword. Tidbeck talks about translating her own stories and has some interesting thoughts about the different ways words sound and how that changes the tone. I think she did an excellent job with the translation. There wasn’t anything that read awkwardly to me.

Very weird

4 stars

Such a strange book. I needed to take a minute after each story to let it properly sink in. I liked some better than others, which is inevitable, but really like the feeling of the book overall. And the folklore and cultural references were very new to me so I appreciated them a lot!

Review of 'Jagannath' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Tremendously imaginative speculative shorts. There might be a bit too much viscera involved to say it's perfectly delivered, but the way she makes the delivery of some of these details so natural (and manageable to my delicate nature!) tempts me to claim that it is. Jagannath is one of the best books I've read this year.

Review of 'Jagannath' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Fantastik lebt für mich von merkwürdigen, bizarren und vor allem neuen Ideen, weshalb ich das Format Kurzgeschichte in diesem Genre sehr schätze.

In manchen von Karin Tidbecks Geschichten gleitet das sonderbare fast beiläufig vorbei, wie bei einer Autofahrt, in anderen ist es das Zentrum der Geschichte. Sehr häufig geht es um Geburt, das Verhältnis zwischen Eltern und Kindern und einen fernöstlich anmutenden Kreislauf des Lebens.

Das fantastische ist bei Tidbeck meist kreatürlich. Wesen, die plötzlich zur Welt kommen, die aus den Bergen oder Wäldern in die Welt gelangen, oder die einfach schon immer in der Welt waren, wenn auch zumeist unbemerkt. Selten sind sie eine Bedrohung, sondern werden erstaunlich oft erwartet, gehegt, auch geliebt. Die Welten, in denen sie existieren, sind dabei häufig völlig alltägliche mit normalen Menschen, die mitunter sogar Alltagsprobleme plagen.

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