Publishers Weekly - 27.01.2020

Review_FICTION

44 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ JANUARY 27, 2020

Review_FICTION

sleeper cell of dreamers rises up against

enforced wakefulness. An alternate present

finds the authorities intent on maximizing

productivity; Greater America deprives

its citizens of dreams by a system of drugs

and virtual realties called Comprehensive

Illusion (CI). Early on, the unnamed nar-

rator stumbles into Onirica, a rebel republic

and state of mind where dreams can be had.

Citizens of Onirica attempt to subvert CI

by upsetting its “symbolic order of reality”

and creating a “united dreamworld.”

Guided by Chevauchet, Onirica’s ambas-

sador, the narrator wanders ghostlike

through the streets of a parallel Paris,

inhabiting people’s dreams. “All should

enjoy right of passage through the dreams

and daydreams of others,” according to

Chevauchet, “on condition that they

abstained from meddling in them.” When

Chevauchet dies, the narrator assumes

his mantle and control of “Operation

Dormitory,” harboring sleeping insurgents

as the authorities close in. Chrostowska at

times overstuffs this Calvino-esque fairy

tale with literary and academic references,

but she succeeds in making Onirica a rebel

worth rooting for. Determined readers will

revel in the sheer fecundity of ideas in this

fiercely imaginative acid trip of an allegory.

(Apr.)

Frying Plantain

Zalika Reid-Benta. Astoria, $16.95 trade

paper (272p) ISBN 978-1-4870-0534-4

In Reid-Benta’s heartfelt debut collec-

tion of linked stories, a girl grows up in

Toronto while coming to terms with her

heritage. On a trip to Jamaica at age 10,

Kara screams after finding a pig’s severed

head in her great-aunt’s icebox. Back home,

she brags to her classmates that she was the

one who slaughtered it. Each story intro-

duces a new uncomfortable situation while

advancing along the timeline of Kara’s life.

In “Snow Day,” Kara tries on a patois (“Yuh

run yuh mouth too much”) and receives

struggle to survive. Enu and Kliau set off

in a “big hide boat” to find warmer lands,

while Armagirgin, a feared and cruel

warrior, defies Nau by harpooning a seal.

His prideful action brings about a major

storm, signaling that the end is nigh for

their Arctic Garden of Eden. Though the

plot and characters can feel underdeveloped,

Rytkheu’s folkloric prose and Chavasse’s

enchanting translation succeed in reimag-

ining indigenous and biblical tales. This

worthy fable offers profound considerations

about stewardship of and people’s relation-

ship to the natural world. (Mar.)

The Eyelid

S.D. Chrowstowska. Coach House, $16.95

trade paper (144p) ISBN 978-1-55245-408-4

In Chrowstowska’s alternately fun and

stuffy dystopian novel (after Permission), a

When the Whales Leave

Yuri Rytkheu, trans. from the Russian by Ilona

Yazhbin Chavasse. Milkweed, $14 trade paper

(144p) ISBN 978-1-57131-131-3

In the lyrical, provocative latest from

Rytkheu (1930–2008), after A Dream in

Polar Fog, an Eve-like woman of the Arctic

offers an unheeded ecological warning.

Nau, the lone human living among the

wildlife of the Eastern Siberian coast, forms

a bond with a whale she names Reu. After

Reu emerges from the sea as a fully formed

man, they begin a romance. Their union

produces both whale and human offspring,

and the two species live harmoniously for

generations. The novel’s tone darkens and

matures as it shifts its focus from Nau to

her descendants, who resent her mysterious

longevity and question her teachings about

their kinship with sea creatures as they

★ Marguerite

Marina Kemp. Viking, $26 (368p) ISBN 978-1-984877-83-3

I

n Kemp’s stellar debut, a young nurse gets caught up

in romance, jealousy, and gossip on a farm in the South

of France. Having trained to become a nurse in order

to help treat her sister’s meningitis, Marguerite Demers

takes a job caring for the prideful, cruel Jérôme Lanvier

at his dilapidated Saint-Sulpice farmhouse. There, she

befriends Suki, an Iranian who wears a hijab, causing the

townspeople to call her a “witch doctor.” Both women

provoke jealousy in Brigitte, who, along with her hus-

band, Henri, works for Jérôme. Suki has long been picked

on by gossipy and insecure Brigitte, who slanders her

perceived rivals with abandon. Meanwhile, Henri, a

handsome, sensitive farmer, is having an affair with Edgar, a writer, and is resigned

to stay at the farm with Brigitte, where he tries to find contentment working in

the dirt, enjoying “the day’s long accumulation of filth.” As Henri stands up for

Marguerite, the pair’s connection heightens. Eventually rumors, combined with

Suki, Brigitte, and Edgar’s jealousy, threaten Marguerite and Henri. Precise,

distinctive prose (train doors close “with a hiss like a punctured tyre”) and well-

drawn characters make this satisfying tale all the more memorable. Expect Kemp

to make a big splash. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Assoc. (Mar.)

Danny Adams

Michael Barron

Michael Barson

Taryn Benbow-Pfalzgraf

Nancy Bilyeau

Nancy Bloch

Vicki Borah Bloom

Leah Bobet

Mitzi Brunsdale

Charlene Brusso

Lisa Butts

Henry Carrigan

Priya Chandrasegaram

Nora E. Derrington

Bryan Dumas

Stefan Dziemianowicz

Christina Eng

Maya Fleischmann

Suzanne Fox

Elizabeth Foxwell

Erin Fry

Shaenon Garrity

Rebecca George

Krystyna Poray Goddu

Idris Gray

Sara Grochowski

Marene Gustin

Patricia Guy

Jennifer Laine Gyurisin

Don Herron

Katrina Niidas Holm

Shavonne Johnson

Michael M. Jones

Hilary S. Kayle

Bridget Keown

Cheryl Klein

Diane Langhorst

Cody Lee

Stephanie Madewell

Amy Magnus

Clare Mao

Chloe Maveal

Emily McInerney

Alice A. McMurtry

Sheri Melnick

Elizabeth Morse

Julie Naughton

Dai Newman

Dai Newman

Eric Norton

Dionne Obeso

Leonard Picker

Norah Piehl

Gwyn Plummer

Quandra Prettyman

Eugene Reynolds

Holly Rice

Christina Rinaldi

Joseph L. Sanders

Alexandra Sanidad

Lorraine Savage

Antonia Saxon

Liz Scheier

Martha Schulman

Kira Sexton

Will Swarts

Erin Talbert

Marta Tandori

Jennifer Taylor

Lelia Taylor

Jeffrey Weaver

Kathy Weeks

Aurora Wheeler

Rona Wilk

Stacy Woodson

Mattie Wyndham

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