PositiveFriezeIn the otherwise understated and graceful prose of this new book, there is remorse, even traces of dejection ... Lahiri is at her best when she writes about the Italian words that she found particularly difficult to translate – words with overlapping or multiple meanings, the kind that lead to the struggles over choice that are all-too known to every writer ... this latest set of essays proves her skill lies in the craft of experimenting with what language can do, both in Italian and English, and both as a writer and as a translator.
Elisa Shua Dusapin, tr. Aneesa Abbas Higgins
RaveHarvard ReviewElisa Shuan Dusapin’s spare novel Winter in Sokcho made waves with its subtle language and atmospheric setting ... It helps, too, that the book is written to be read in a single sitting. It’s a short novel, full of visually evocative and poetic considerations of love, language, and connection. Winter in Sokcho begins and ends like dew drops in winter, collecting each night and evaporating the next morning ... Winter in Sochko delivers an unassuming but potent story that lingers. What is most riveting is the constant push and pull of language in the novel ... Dusapin is able to hold the attention of her readers because of the novel’s suggestiveness. With its serene energy, terse conversations, and unexpected viscerality, Winter in Sokcho conjures up a season I already wanted to revisit after laying the book down.
Percival Everett
RavePloughsharesUnraveling across over a hundred crisp chapters, the novel moves quickly. There are bloodied hands, a detective narrative, deadpan and slapstick satire, profanities, and obscenity ... The novel’s tension is pervasive and the gore of the crimes permeates the readers’ minds, creating an intimacy that forces readers to look closely at what could otherwise be just another case they’d read about in the news ... Everett also uses symbolism to convey deeper meaning—namely the titular trees. The trees play an important role in the book, referring both to trees from which lynched victims were hung and to family trees that point to the perpetrators of past crimes ... A darkly amusing read, The Trees directly addresses racism, police brutality, and a culture of violence in a way that’s as urgent as it is uproarious.