Reviews

Shark – Will Self

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Jaws without the shark.

Black Diamond – Zakes Mda

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Unlike many Apartheid novels that stick to one location or group, Black Diamond depicts a South Africa where every group is present and no powerful white man is in sight.

Captives – Norman Manea

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Captives speaks to Sebald’s call to stick within the register of memory, even if memory has been stripped of its supporting features.

Rewrite – Temenuga Trifonova

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Trifonova forces the reader to reassess the opinions and institutions that validate the knowledge we have both of ourselves and of others.

Dragon’s Breath and Other True Stories – MariNaomi

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There is perhaps no more apt metaphor for the stories and vignettes in Dragon’s Breath than this: something that flares bright in your vision and lingers long after it’s extinguished.

Baboon – Naja Marie Aidt

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Aidt perceives with great clarity the intricacies of relationships, not just romantic or sexual, though they are prominent, and she does it with an apparent cool distance.

Mature Themes – Andrew Durbin

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Mature Themes searches for pieces of people in the streaming media as if panning for gold.

Paper Champion – Shane Jones

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A big octopus shows up and helps them, but the volcano is undeterred and continues moving forward.

By Night the Mountain Burns – Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel

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It is a melodic text rife with images of hollowed canoes and mist-enveloped mountains.

Skeleton Costumes – Thomas Moore

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As if Rimbaud were on Whatsapp.