Stillicide is the latest offering from Cynan Jones, which was written first as a radio play for BBC Radio and adapted into a short novel. An assemblage of narratives that revolve around a single issue, Jones’s latest book is a bit different from his previous books as it’s a speculative novel about global warming that looks to a future that we may be doomed to face.
In our morning reading: an interview with Cynan Jones, thoughts on Bae Suah’s new novel, and more.
In our afternoon reading: an interview with Virginie Despentes, new writing from Bud Smith, and more.
In our afternoon reading: Hanif Abdurraqib on the new album from Jamila Woods, thoughts on Neal Stephenson’s latest novel, and more.
Cynan Jones’s books tend to rest on the intersection of the interior struggles of his characters and the exterior challenges the elements present. It is only through navigating the difficulties in the natural world that the characters are able to excavate the emotional dilemmas they’re unable to process—certainly, the elements, the land, and the creatures dying at the hands of the characters are symbolic of his characters’ moods, but there is always something else happening beyond Jones’s use of setting […]
Well, it’s April. Nominally it’s springtime–but the presence of snowy weather and temperatures friendly to hot cocoa and roaring fires suggests otherwise. Metaphorically speaking, though, that range of moods and modes lines up pretty neatly with the books that are on our radar for this month–everything from works in translation to bold collections of nonfiction to eagerly-anticipated literary debuts. Here’s a look at several of the books that we’re most excited to explore this month.
The Long Dry by Cynan Jones is the third book that Coffee House Press has released in the United States and though it doesn’t have some of the mystery and action that provides a sense of urgency to his previous novel, Everything I Found on the Beach, The Long Dry is still a driving novel in its own right, which is due in some part to the slim chapters and clever sequencing of the book.
In our afternoon reading: thoughts on a newly-reissued novel by Samuel R. Delany, an interview with Cynan Jones, and much more.