Machado's recent story collection is filled with doubles, ghosts, and evocations of apocalypse. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (2017). Moss knows how to wrap the tension around her fist and keep it clenched right up until the final moment. Set in a forest camp that recreates Iron Age England, this is a book about family and abuse of power and how the most unsettling things are often those closest to us. Watch out for when the writing itself starts becoming haunted. Don't read this when you're alone in the house. You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann (2016).Ī struggling German screenwriter retreats to a beautiful rented home in the mountains, where writer's block becomes the least of his concerns. From the opening page, there is the sense of rolling toward a conclusion it might be better not to find out about. Structured as a conversation between a dying woman and a young boy, this story set in the author's native Argentina is unapologetically weird and shudderingly creepy. A peaceful holiday in a villa in the south of France takes a dark turn in a brief, sparse novel that packs an enormous punch and lingers for days. This is one of those books I read every few years to remind me of what writing can do.
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