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TBC
"The characters she meets are the punctuation of her years: some are dangerous, some are lonely, some are the stuff of legend. The encounters are shared in a steady series of short vignettes, like
bar-room tales settled down into a sharp-edged prose poetry."
Lolli 06/22
"Think of Strega as a kind of summer night-terror. Heady and
feverish. Chills and the thud thud of a heartbeat in its repeated
phrases, its perfect-pounding verbs ‘I saw… I saw… I saw…’
"
Indigo Press 10/22
"a moving and intelligent collection that reminds us that love and
kindness can look like many things: their consequences stretching far
and wide."
Peninsula Press 07/22
"an immersive portrait of an intriguing character; an ode to the complex creation of an artist"
Lolli 06/22
"This is a writer to pay attention to, with a novel that holds many
warnings and wonders within its folds. It’s a slim, perfectly sculpted
text giving space to one woman, and the poetry of her pause"
"Osunde is gifted not only with an astute eye for hypocrisy, but the
talent to explore it with sharp insight, deep characterisation, and
queer wit."
"...secrets and revelations, visions and visitations, sharp dialogue and heavy silences..."
"Here is imagery unforgettable and awe-inspiring"
"a stylish slideshow of regrets, desires, and fleeting connections: blink and any certainty is gone"
"Almada conveys the urgency of their lives and the ripples of the feud in short chapters, pacy prose, and knowing dialogue"
"a
story that flows gently through tenderness and trauma, through homes and
horizons: moments focussing and refocussing with a compassionate and
attentive gaze.
"
"Tenderness is a risky book.
"
"..an eclectic set of short ...stories of Iceland’s sole city. Here they explore nature’s
confrontations with creeping urbanity; friendships and affairs amidst
cafes and bars; and the ghosts of both drowned sailors and abandoned
machines."
"Fraia’s prose is at turns meditative, mournful, and dreamlike; both a
detached voiceover commentary, and a rough confession of disappointed
desires."
"an unnerving, intelligent, very funny, and often horrific labyrinth of
contemporary unease. With this collection, we meet a writer with the
skill and confidence to capture the disquiet of disintegrating truths"
"a
spiky, timeless, and timely collection of psychologically astute speculative fiction.
"
"a shining, drizzled, indie love-song of queer joy; a
bruised deep blue B-side to consume in one sitting then set on repeat;
shouting along to the plaintive refrain you always knew you always knew.
"
"His story is many stories: and stories not only as histories but also celebrations, warnings, prophecies.
"
"Mesmeric, funny, wry, delightful – this is a novel to help the
millennials find their own paths through the world they’ve inherited.
That’s, well… it’s no easy job.
"
"an assured and complex debut that tempts and teases you always a little deeper, your eyes unable to be drawn away."
See also: Author Interview
"Somerville is unafraid of disrupting the picturesque — to show us what happens alone in the darkness, with only the roar of the waves."
"We take pause in the author’s mastery of the language of the mundane: ‘…soup. Marriage soup. A soup of stones’."
"The impact – the form left against the eyelids – of this modern classic will remain long after you leave. Against the incessant roar of tides in your ears: the last index of salt, and steps, and dark halls against starlight. Careful. Do not lose your way. Do not lose yourself."
©J Moody 2021