The Last Woman in the World is heart-racing, page-turning, hiding-under-the-doona stuff. A smart and pacey thriller that is also a lament for a world we have failed to care for. –Kate Mildenhall, bestselling author of The Mother Fault Read more at Hatchett.
Read MoreThe Morning Star, Karl Ove Knausgård
Translated by Martin Aitken in 2021 and originally published in 2020, The Morning Star has received positive reviews in the media lately. From Penguin Random House: One long night in August, Arne and Tove are staying with their children in their summer house in southern Norway. Their friend Egil has […]
Read MoreThe Hungry Earth, Nicholas Kaufmann
Just in time for Halloween we’ve got this new eco-horror novel about an invasive killer fungus disturbed from its underground slumber and ready to take over the world. –GreenQueen Read more at Fantastic Fiction!
Read MoreMilk Teeth, Helen Bukowski
Beautifully written in immersive, spare prose, Helene Bukowski’s debut novel is about what it means to be a mother at the end of the world, about living with the impacts of climate change, and the way we view “outsiders.” Jen Calleja’s translation from German is a lively rendition of this […]
Read MoreNational Park Mystery Series, Scott Graham
When suspicious deaths befall a whitewater rafting expedition through Cataract Canyon in Canyonlands National Park, archaeologist Chuck Bender and his family recognize evil intent lies behind the tragedies. They must risk their lives and act before the murderer makes an already deadly journey on the Colorado River through Utah’s […]
Read MoreLove After the End, Joshua Whitehead
Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction a young adult anthology edited by Joshua Whitehead (Lambda Literary Award winner, Jonny Appleseed) featuring short stories by Indigenous authors with Two-Spirit & Queer heroes, in utopian and dystopian settings. It’s a sequel to the popular anthology, Love […]
Read MoreSpotlight – Premee Mohamed
Click here to return to the series This month we travel virtually to Alberta, the home of Premee Mohamed and also where her novella The Annual Migration of Clouds (ECW Press, September 2021) takes place. I admit to being drawn to this book because I often search for fiction about […]
Read MoreThe Listeners, Jordan Tannahill
“The Listeners is at once a revery for the sublime, for the innocuous tapestry of sounds that make up the rhythms of our lives — and the pollution of sounds that can tear and devour. It is at once a masterful interrogation of the body, as well as the desperate […]
Read MoreParadise on Fire, Jewell Parker Rhodes
From award-winning and bestselling author Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a powerful coming-of-age survival tale exploring issues of race, class, and climate change.
Read MoreThe Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2021, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki et al.
The first ever Year’s Best African speculative fiction anthology with 2020 reprinted works from some of the most exciting voices, old and new. Short stories and authors: “Where You Go” by Somto O. Ihezue, “Things Boys Do” by Pemi Aguda, “Giant Steps” by Russell Nichols, “The Future in Saltwater” by […]
Read MoreDew in the Morning, Shimmer Chinodya
Dew in the Morning is a tender, evocative novel of growing up, but in it we see the seeds of many issues which Chinodya will dwell on in his later novels: familial tensions, the taut interplay of tradition and modernity, ancestral beliefs and Christianity…A Bildungsroman, Chinodya captures the centrality of […]
Read MoreMahanadi, Anita Agnihotri
Translated by Nivedita Sen, with the subtitle: A novel about the river. In this novel, the tale of the river is entwined with the people through vignettes of their dynamic lives that are infused with myths, legends and archaeological anecdotes. Characters like Malati Gond, Neelkantha, Kuber, Bhanu Shitulia, Parvati and […]
Read MoreCloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr
In Cloud Cuckoo Land, the world may be falling apart but everything and everyone must come together…This novel of performative storytelling that is also a novel about storytelling is dedicated to “the librarians then, now, and in the years to come.” Two anxieties, reinforcing each other, are at play: the […]
Read MoreThe Annual Migration of Clouds, Premee Mohamed
This slim, literary dystopia explores a mother and daughter’s relationship in a setting ravaged by climate change. –Buzzfeed With keen insight and biting prose, Premee Mohamed delivers a deeply personal tale in this post-apocalyptic hopepunk novella that reflects on the meaning of community and asks what we owe to those […]
Read MoreStrange Beasts of China, Yan GE
The novel’s environmental ethos is also very much of the now, with numerous, vivid descriptions of urban decay competing with the natural world. As an example, there’s a wistful moment where the novelist sees a bird rise into the air with… “an elongated body and exquisite movements, feathers as pale […]
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