Debut Books

The Works of Guillaume Dustan’s Volume 1: In My Room, I’m Going Out Tonight, Stronger Than Me – Guillaume Dustan

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Normally there is a safe distance between the reader and the work, however transgressive it is, whereas in Dustan’s writing the language is intimate, precise, explicit, pornographic even, and yet, ultimately, an attack on what is known as “Literature”.

Teklife, Ghettoville, Eski – Dhanveer Singh Brar

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Brar’s book marks an important step in understanding the value of this music and how it allowed these black electronic musicians, DJ’s and MC’s to prosper against all the odds.

Tight Little Vocal Cords – Loie Rawding

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What, then, distinguishes such a novel as TIGHT LITTLE VOCAL CORDS from the very many novels — going back to the very beginning of the form — that assimilate “other” modes of writing

Dark Satellites – Clemens Meyer

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Meyer’s revue of misfits, dreamers, guards, clerks, and cleaners are not at pains to identify with the reality they don’t feel invited to participate in — something their wild whims and delusions show us on every page.

The Inland Sea – Madeleine Watts

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The Inland Sea demonstrates both what realist fiction can offer, as we try harder to grapple with climate crisis, and what it can’t.

Fake Accounts – Lauren Oyler

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I did not read Lauren Oyler’s debut, FAKE ACCOUNTS, for fun, and I won’t say that’s what it turned into, because that would be something adjacent to a lie. I read it for the discourse.

DARKCUTTER – Kina Viola

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DARKCUTTER is the room where someone eats and is eaten. Where the death-surplus is hidden. Softness in all corners.

Holeplay – Dan Schapiro

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“Rather like the eponymous sex act, Holeplay is arch, surprising, and spirited.”

The Theory of Flight – Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

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When we want to base our shared reality with each other on facts, we also must allow, acknowledge, and cherish the existence of magic.

Fauna – Christiane Vadnais

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By narrating natural destruction in a neutral tone, Fauna models one way that climate-fiction can serve environmentalism.