Tag: Dystopia

Feminism, Fiction, Sci-Fi / Fantasy, Speculative

The Water Cure – A Feminist Dystopia

Title:  The Water Cure Author: Sophie Mackintosh Publisher: Doubleday (January 2019) ISBN:  978 0385543873   Just when it seems dystopian horror has had its moment, a new iteration emerges. The Water Cure, the Man Booker-nominated, debut novel of Welsh writer Sophie Mackintosh, depicts a distinctly female dystopia and arrives amidst the cyclical tides of the #MeToo movement. So, what fresh hell this? Three sisters are … Continue reading The Water Cure – A Feminist Dystopia

tolmsted3 Comments
Fiction, Literary Awards, Speculative, Translation

In Yoko Tawada’s The Emissary the future is, predictably, bleak.

Title: The Emissary Author: Yoko Tawada Translator:  Margaret Mitsutani Publisher: New Directions Books, New York (2018) ISBN:  978 0 8112 2762 9 In Yoko Tawada’s The Emissary the future is, somewhat predictably, bleak. Japanese children are frail and infirm creatures, cared for by grandparents and great-grandparents who remain strong and vigorous well past the hundred-year mark. The two main characters, Yoshiro and his great-grandson Mumei, live … Continue reading In Yoko Tawada’s The Emissary the future is, predictably, bleak.

tolmsted3 Comments
Advance Review Copy, Fiction, History, Short Story, Translation

The Sleep of the Righteous by Wolfgang Hilbig, tr. Isabel Fargo Cole

Title: The Sleep of the Righteous Author:   Wolfgang Hilbig Translator:   Isabel Fargo Cole Publisher: Two Lines Press, San Francisco (2015) ISBN: 978 1 931883 47 4 In his introduction to Wolfgang Hilbig’s The Sleep of the Righteous, the Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai wrote: “Many have thought and have said about him that because his fate and writerly art are so closely tied with … Continue reading The Sleep of the Righteous by Wolfgang Hilbig, tr. Isabel Fargo Cole

tolmsted5 Comments
Advance Review Copy, Fiction, Translation

The Suicide Shop by Jean Teulé, translated from the original French by Sue Dyson

Gallic Books is a small UK press that publishes French books translated into English. They  were founded in 2007 by two Random House alumni.   Later in September I’ll be reviewing The President’s Hat by Antoine Laurain. It tells the story of Daniel Mercier, an average man who finds President François Mitterrand’s black felt hat and puts it on.  “It’s a perfect fit, and as … Continue reading The Suicide Shop by Jean Teulé, translated from the original French by Sue Dyson

tolmstedLeave a comment
Fiction, Sci-Fi / Fantasy

Things We Didn’t See Coming

New authors love short stories… and Steve Amsterdam is no exception.  His debut collection follows the life of a boy who grows to adulthood through the course of 9 episodic stories.  The setting is an uncertain dystopian future. The stories in Things We Didn’t See Coming are all narrated in the first person (like everything else between two covers these days).  Amsterdam is at his … Continue reading Things We Didn’t See Coming

tolmstedLeave a comment