Olga Dies Dreaming: A Novel by Xochitl Gonzalez (2022)

July 2017
A Polish Wake It’s a myth about motherhood, Olga felt, that the time in utero imbues mothers with a lifelong understanding of their children. Yes, they know their essences, this she didn’t doubt, but mothers are still humans who eventually form their own ideas of both who their kids ( Read more... )

Loop by Brenda Lozano (2019), translated from the Spanish by Annie McDermott (2019)

8The word of the day, according to the online Oxford Dictionary, is Hikikomori: ‘(In Japan) the abnormal avoidance of social contact. Japanese origin, literally “staying indoors, (social) withdrawal ( Read more... )

Very Cold People: A Novel by Sarah Manguso (2022)

Chapter 7
We all liked him, my friends and I, all the tough girls from our side of the school zone, and one day someone said that Will liked me. A dream come true, a girl meanly added. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t look at Will anymore, so I didn’t, not even one day in the hallway, in the ( Read more... )

Chilean Poet: A Novel by Alejandro Zambra (2020), translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell (2022)

II. Step-PoetGonzalo wanted her to stay. And he wanted, at least, to touch her. To touch her shoulder, her hair, maybe, but it seemed impossible to get close to her. Because she was in a hurry, but not only that: Carla had quickly constructed a ( Read more... )

Checkout 19: A Novel by Claire-Louise Bennett (2022)

II. Bright SparkI was with him. I’d done it, I’d crossed over a boundary. I was somewhere I shouldn’t be. I was with him-and he was with me. All weekend I felt him with me, wherever I went, all day and at night. He was with me very strongly when I lay in the dark, it was almost as if I was made ( Read more... )

I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness: A Novel by Claire Vaye Watkins (2021)

Ten-Item Edinburgh Post-Natal Depression ScaleMy sister visits and asks how much a doula costs. Does a person really need one ( Read more... )

A Very Nice Girl: A Novel by Imogen Crimp (2022)

Part One
Three Things are important-I said, thinking about my parents. The objects in their house they guarded, like flames they’d cup their hands around. The decades-old clothes. The mugs with the handles glued back on. The chair with the legs that fell off. You had to make sure not to sit on it, ( Read more... )

The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran (2022)

Chapter 1Like most book people, there was a shadow in his face, a hollow echo in his laugh, that let you know he’d rather be around books than people. Who could blame him? It was why so many of us were in this business. People had let us down. People had broken our hearts. We liked books ( Read more... )

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors (2022)

Chapter Five: Late August
Several people mock-groaned or whooped, followed by a smattering of applause. Zoe checked her phone; she had been there less than ten minutes. For the first exercise, Kyle asked the group to go around the semicircle, each person shouting out how they felt in that moment. ( Read more... )

Joan Is Okay: A Novel by Weike Wang (2022)I read somewhere that empathy is repeating the last three words of a sentence and nodding your head (3 ( Read more... )