PositivePloughshares\"... as I started reading, the book scared me. Its Trump character is so realistic and its social commentary so spot on that I couldn’t shake the feeling that its plot doesn’t seem very farfetched ... Did I mention the book was funny? When characters aren’t getting holes drilled into their heads or dying of radiation poisoning, when journalists aren’t being imprisoned for reporting on the truth, it can be hilarious ... The novel is not, however, an easy read. Reflecting the fragmentation of our culture, it moves around in time, in point of view, and in form. It can be gruesome and relentless ... But Trump Sky Alpha is more than social commentary... What makes this novel eloquent and urgent are its human elements...\
Niviaq Korneliussen Trans. by Anna Halager
RavePloughsharesA novel that gripped me from the very first page with its intensity, freshness, and humor. The novel is short, only around two hundred pages, but it moves like a bullet: powerful, emotionally dense, and over much more quickly than I wanted it to be ... There’s an earnestness to Last Night in Nuuk that would be cheesy in another book; wrapped in Korneliussen’s prose, however, it works ... Together, these five voices form a story of tenderness and courage that comes despite the hedonism of their youth, or maybe because of it ... Even in the darkest times of one’s life, when friends humiliate us, when our lovers cheat, and when we feel most alone, Last Night in Nuuk tells us to remain optimistic
Amparo Dávila Trans. by Audrey Harris and Matthew Gleeson
RavePloughsharesReminiscent of Shirley Jackson, Franz Kafka, and Edgar Allen Poe, and tests the limits of fiction ... Often, what a writer doesn’t tell readers is as important as what she does tell them. Dávila, in addition to skillfully navigating elements that require a suspension of disbelief, perfectly executes this balance ... There are similarities across each of the stories within The Houseguest, but rather than being repetitive, they seem to complement one another, creating a conversation across stories ... Even when Dávila’s characters are at their most violent and insane, even when she’s at her most fantastical, her stories are wholly true.
Yan Lianke, Trans. by Carlos Rojas
PositivePloughsharesThe plot itself seems straightforward (Save the town! Save the family!), though it would be difficult to define the novel’s genre. It floats between surrealism, sci-fi, horror, and absurdism, while never letting go of its satirical eye. Yet the language and structure of the novel reads more like Samuel Beckett or James Joyce than it does The Handmaid’s Tale ... Yan has called his writing “mythorealism,” which seems an apt description. The Day the Sun Died bears the largesse and cadence of myth ... Yan’s physical descriptions can be rich and specific, grounded in realism, but also far-fetched and steeped in surprising metaphor.
