Mostly literary & experimental fiction, and sci-fi.
My memory is terrible. Let’s see if this account helps me remember what I’ve actually read!
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Content warning Spoilers and violence CWs
I loved this, and love reading antique source material. But wow, this was grim. All I could think was: Roman society was just full of horror. Slavery, rape, CSA, casual violence. Very cathartic to see these classical ‘great men’ portrayed as repulsive creeps.
Onwuemezi is in the category of ‘new favourite’ for me. Unique and beautiful style, dreamy resonances. I think the title story felt obliquely allegorical to me — touching something deep.
A mother and daughter travel from abroad to meet in Tokyo: they walk along the …
This was such an immersive, touching read. The cultural, generational and intellectual distance between mother and daughter is beautifully portrayed.
Needed something dystopian and witty, and started to read it while I was on the train to London, for a really weird software research nixer. I love this already.
If you need more joyful, funny, life-affirming sci-fi in your life, I can highly recommend this one. It’s got:
I’m going to need to read everything Valdes has ever written, now.
A successful communist actor survives poverty and war in 1950s Hungary. She fixates her traumatic resentments on an a figure from her childhood.