Generational Trauma in Avni Doshi’s Booker Prize Finalist “Burnt Sugar” – Chicago Review of Books

Generational Trauma in Avni Doshi’s Booker Prize Finalist “Burnt Sugar” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] “My mother is forgetting, and there is nothing I can do about it. There is no way to make her remember the things she has done in the past, no way to baste her in guilt.” With this, we are thrust into the cruel, callous, complicated world of Avni Doshi’s Burnt Sugar, a world … Read more

Separation and Belonging in “Bride of the Sea” – Chicago Review of Books

Separation and Belonging in “Bride of the Sea” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] One of fiction’s greatest possibilities is how it can exist as something both intimate and grand, simultaneously exploring the life of a character and the world they are growing into, until one narrative unfolds into many. Bride of the Sea does just this, as the novel intertwines the dissolution and reconstruction of a single … Read more

Guidelines on How to Survive in “The Swallowed Man” – Chicago Review of Books

Guidelines on How to Survive in “The Swallowed Man” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Edward Carey’s latest book, The Swallowed Man, is a retelling of the classic Pinocchio fairy tale from Gepetto’s perspective. Gepetto is left alone for much of Carlo Collodi’s original story, so Carey saw an opportunity to both write his version of events and create a visual art exhibition of the weird and wild creations … Read more

Duality, Complexity, and the Architecture of a Story in “Consent” – Chicago Review of Books

Duality, Complexity, and the Architecture of a Story in “Consent” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Annabel Lyon, an award-winning writer first hailed for her short stories, and later for her work in both YA fiction and historical fiction, continues to find new ways to broaden her reach in her latest novel Consent, which draws from both literary fiction as well as the thriller. Consent might be closest to Lyon’s … Read more

The Power and Legacy of Language in “The Liar’s Dictionary” – Chicago Review of Books

The Power and Legacy of Language in “The Liar’s Dictionary” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Georges Seurat’s painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte is a marquee visitor attraction at the Art Institute of Chicago. This painting of mid-19th century Parisians picnicking on the banks of the Seine is large, but the figures within it are made up of millions of tiny colored dots. To view the painting, visitors … Read more

At the Edge of “A Bed for the King’s Daughter” – Chicago Review of Books

At the Edge of “A Bed for the King’s Daughter” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] The grounds upon which A Bed for the King’s Daughter was passed up by English-language publishers also mark, perhaps unsurprisingly, the roots of its merits. Sawad Hussain samples these rejections in her translator’s note. That the twenty-two micro-fictions in Shahla Ujayli’s proportionately short collection were considered on the submission circuit to be “too short,” “too experimental,” or … Read more

The Delicate Boundaries of Life in “The Dangers of Smoking in Bed” – Chicago Review of Books

The Delicate Boundaries of Life in “The Dangers of Smoking in Bed” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Lauded Argentine journalist and author of Things We Lost in the Fire, Mariana Enríquez again delivers intrigue and brutality in her latest story collection, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. Stories of spirits and disappearances collectively address the mystery of loss through narratives that are as gripping … Read more

Erosion, Tension, and Outrage in “Summerwater” – Chicago Review of Books

Erosion, Tension, and Outrage in “Summerwater” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Sarah Moss’s seventh novel, Summerwater, follows her acclaimed Ghost Wall (2018), and takes its cue from 19th century English poet Sir William Watson’s “The Ballad of Semerwater.” The poem tells an old legend about a mysterious traveling beggar who arrives in the prosperous town of Semerwater in northern England’s Yorkshire Dales. In response to … Read more

American Racism, American Reckoning in “White Freedom” – Chicago Review of Books

American Racism, American Reckoning in “White Freedom” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Editor’s Note: This book and this review were written before the insurrection against the United States Capitol on January 6th, 2021 1. Two events in recent history: In April and May of 2020, a series of demonstrations took place inside and around the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan. Demonstrators gathered in protest of recent … Read more