We are multitudes : Rejecting the single story
By Lighthouse - Edinburgh's Radical Bookshop
We are multitudes : Rejecting the single story
By Lighthouse - Edinburgh's Radical Bookshop
‘To the people of privilege
You will survive your discomfort while reading this book
But many like me, who sit dangerously at various intersections of identity,
Will not survive long enough for you to complete the last page
What will you do?’
So begins Catherine Hernandez’ near future dystopia Crosshairs. It took my breath away. Just as Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s The Mercies did the first time I read it. Literally winded. Awed by the generosity, resilience & clarity of our storytellers, how they crack the world open for us if we would but dare to look.
Here are a few shatteringly good works of fiction -Gabriela Garciawill show you Cuba and the women of Cuba as no headline could, there is eco-fiction from Tara June Winch, The Yield is a book of traditions and legacies that reclaims an Australia so many remain intent on erasing, and there is Sarvat Hasin's fresh, epic take on the perennial problem of loving one's muse. Salena Godden takes on life, death and all that's in between with scintillating, poetic prose, while Torrey Peters offers us Detransition, Baby a sharp novel of family - chosen and longed for.
Read the world. Honour your storytellers.
The Yield
Tara June Winch
£9.99 £9.49WINNER OF THE MILES FRANKLIN AWARD 2020 An exquisitely written, heartbreaking and hopeful novel of culture, language, tradition, suffering and empowerment 'A groundbreaking novel for black and white Australia' Richard Flanagan, Man Booker Prize winning author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North Knowing that he will soon die, Albert "Poppy" Gondiwindi has one final task he must fulfill. A member of the indigenous Wiradjuri tribe, he has spent his adult life in Prosperous House and the town of Massacre Plains, a small enclave on the banks of the Murrumby River. Before he takes his last breath, Poppy is determined to pass on the language of his people, the traditions of his ancestors, and everything that was ever remembered by those who came before him. The land itself aids him; he finds the words on the wind. After his passing, Poppy's granddaughter, August, returns home from Europe, where she has lived the past ten years, to attend his burial. Her overwhelming grief is compounded by the pain, anger, and sadness of memory of growing up in poverty before her mother's incarceration, of the racism she and her people endured, of the mysterious disappearance of her sister when they were children; an event that has haunted her and changed her life. Her homecoming is bittersweet as she confronts the love of her kin and news that Prosperous is to be repossessed by a mining company. Determined to make amends and honor Poppy and her family, she vows to save their land a quest guided by the voice of her grandfather that leads into the past, the stories of her people, the secrets of the river. Told in three masterfully woven narratives, The Yield is a celebration of language and an exploration of what makes a place "home." A story of a people and a culture dispossessed, it is also a joyful reminder of what once was and what endures a powerful reclaiming of Indigenous language, storytelling, and identity, that offers hope for the future.
The Giant Dark: an award-winning novel about love and fame
SARVAT HASIN
£16.99 £16.14The Giant Dark is an award-winning debut novel about love and fame. Aida is a rock star at her peak with a devoted cultish fanbase who follow her every move. When she disappears into a complicated love affair with an ex, they are determined to uncover her truths. After a decade of silence, Aida and Ehsan reconnect, hoping to recreate the love they shared in their youth. When Ehsan's life unravels, he follows Aida on tour, but it ecomes clear that their connection is strained by secrets and jealousies. The past blurs with their present as they follow in the footsteps of mythic lovers before them. The Giant Dark is a loose retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, exploring the consuming and devastating effects of using a lover as a muse.
Detransition, Baby: Longlisted for the Women's Prize 2021 and Top Ten The Times Bestseller
Torrey Peters
£9.99 £9.49A whipsmart debut about three women—transgender and cisgender—whose lives collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires around gender, motherhood, and sex. Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men. Ames isn't happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that decision cost him his relationship with Reese—and losing her meant losing his only family. Even though their romance is over, he longs to find a way back to her. When Ames's boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she's pregnant with his baby—and that she's not sure whether she wants to keep it—Ames wonders if this is the chance he's been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family—and raise the baby together? This provocative debut is about what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can't reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel.
Crosshairs
Catherine Hernandez
£8.99 £8.54The author of the acclaimed novel Scarborough weaves an unforgettable and timely dystopian tale about a near-future, where a queer Black performer and his allies join forces to rise up when an oppressive regime gathers those deemed "Other" into concentration camps. Set in a terrifyingly familiar near-future, with massive floods leading to rampant homelessness and devastation, a government-sanctioned regime called The Boots seizes on the opportunity to round up communities of color, the disabled, and the LGBTQ+ into labour camps. In the shadows, a new hero emerges. After he loses his livelihood as a drag queen and the love of his life, Kay joins the resistance alongside Bahadur, a transmasculine refugee, and Firuzeh, a headstrong social worker. Guiding them in the use of weapons and close-quarters combat is Beck, a rogue army officer, who helps them plan an uprising at a major televised international event. With her signature "raw yet beautiful, disturbing yet hopeful" (Booklist) prose, Catherine Hernandez creates a vision of the future that is all the more frightening because it is very possible. A cautionary tale filled with fierce and vibrant characters, Crosshairs explores the universal desire to thrive, love, and be loved for being your true self.
Mrs Death Misses Death
Salena Godden
£8.99 £8.54*One of Mairi's favourite books - a work of genius, of beauty, or immense heart and compassion and imagination. Cannot recommend it enough' Mrs Death tells her intoxicating story in this life-affirming fire-starter of a novelMrs Death has had enough. She is exhausted from spending eternity doing her job and now she seeks someone to unburden her conscience to. Wolf Willeford, a troubled young writer, is well acquainted with death, but until now hadn't met Death in person - a black, working-class woman who shape-shifts and does her work unseen. Enthralled by her stories, Wolf becomes Mrs Death's scribe, and begins to write her memoirs. Using their desk as a vessel and conduit, Wolf travels across time and place with Mrs Death to witness deaths of past and present and discuss what the future holds for humanity. As the two reflect on the losses they have experienced - or, in the case of Mrs Death, facilitated - their friendship grows into a surprising affirmation of hope, resilience and love. All the while, despite her world-weariness, Death must continue to hold humans' fates in her hands, appearing in our lives when we least expect her . . .
Of Women and Salt
Gabriela Garcia
£14.99sweeping, masterful debut about a daughter's fateful choice, a mother motivated by her own past, and a family legacy that begins in Cuba before either of them were born. Of Women and Salt is a story of shared heritage, populated by magnetic, fascinating, flawed women whose voices demand to be heard. 'Vivid details, visceral prose and strong willful women' Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana 'Vivid, engrossing, luminous' Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti Five generations of women, linked by blood and circumstance, by the secrets they share, and by a single book passed down through a family, with an affirmation scrawled in its margins: We are force. We are more than we think we are. 1866, Cuba: Maria Isabel is the only woman employed at a cigar factory, where each day the workers find strength in daily readings of Victor Hugo. But these are dangerous political times, and as Maria begins to see marriage and motherhood as her only options, the sounds of war are approaching. 1959, Cuba: Dolores watches her husband make for the mountains in answer to Fidel Castro's call to arms. What Dolores knows, though, is that to survive, she must win her own war, and commit an act of violence that threatens to destroy her daughter Carmen's world.
The Day I Fell Off My Island
Yvonne Bailey-Smith
£12.99 £12.34The Day I Fell Off My Island tells the story of Erna Mullings, a teenage Jamaican girl uprooted from her island following the sudden death of her beloved grandmother. When Erna is sent to England to be reunited with her siblings, she dreads leaving behind her elderly grandfather, and the only life she has ever known. A new future unfolds, in a strange country and with a mother she barely knows. The next decade will be a complex journey of estrangement and arrival, new beginnings and the uncovering of long-buried secrets. A psychologist and former social worker, Yvonne Bailey-Smith, explains: 'As an immigrant child, I often wished that someone had been able to take me aside and explain to me that leaving everything I knew to go on a so-called adventure to somewhere way beyond my imagination was going cause me an unimaginable sense of loss and sadness. I also wish that the same person had been there to reassure me that I would survive and even flourish, given half a chance.'Engrossing, courageous and psychologically insightful, this novel will speak to readers the world over and sit alongside classic coming-of-age novels, from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre to Alice Walker's The Colour Purple. Coming-of-age debut novel, by the mother of Zadie Smith, about a young Jamaican girl faced with the trauma of immigration, estrangement from her fa
The Mercies: The Bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club Pick
Kiran Millwood Hargrave
£9.99 £9.49The very best in feminist fiction, destined to become a queer classic. A beguiling tale rooted in real history, set against the backdrop of tradition and superstition, loss and resilience, witch trials and unspeakable love! - Mairi For readers of Circe and The Handmaid's Tale, Kiran Millwood Hargrave's The Mercies is a story about a love that could prove as dangerous as it is powerful. Winter, 1617. The sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardo is thrown into a reckless storm. A young woman, Maren, watches as the men of the island, out fishing, perish in an instant. Vardo is now a place of women. Eighteen months later, a sinister figure arrives. Summoned from Scotland to take control of a place at the edge of the civilized world, Absalom Cornet knows what he needs to do to bring the women of the island to heel. With him travels his young wife, Ursa. In her new home, and in Maren, Ursa finds something she has never seen before: independent women. But Absalom sees only a place flooded with a terrible evil, one he must root out at all costs . . .