Kochai constantly experiments with form and voice, deftly stepping between photorealism and fantasy to create a vivid, surreal short-story collection that is both a modern parable of American imperialism and a testament to Kochai’s skill as a writer. The Haunting of Hajji Hotak is a book of shape-shifting. Kaleidoscoping from dreams into reality, to giving readers a choice in deciding the protagonist’s fate, you never know what’s coming next - but isn’t that just the thing to keep somebody going? -Tonika Reed, editorial coordinator The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai This novel takes a generous and sometimes scathing look at the various manifestations of an artist’s life, dreams, and liminal station. Gathered like little treats for later, Jones sweetly provides payoff for each inciting action in glorious and unconventional ways. Jones colors the life of this peregrine traveler in a way that maintains her anonymity while providing slices of herself to the reader throughout the text. In this novel, Gayl Jones sweeps readers away to the isle of Ibiza and pours upon them all three of these sensations in the most artistic of ways.Īmanda, an older expat on the island of Ibiza and a “self-proclaimed” divorcee, is an erotic novelist turned travel guide writer. Sometimes the sun warms, sometimes the sun stings, and sometimes the sun just flat-out burns. Marin Cogan, senior correspondent The Birdcatcher by Gayl Jones Gunty’s writing is impressionistic and original - a technicolor kaleidoscope of the earthly and otherworldly. As a daughter of the Rust Belt who’s read enough literary fiction about elite New Yorkers to last a lifetime, I couldn’t get enough of the world she built. While the story has elements familiar to a certain microgenre of literary fiction (the quirky child genius, the multi-character viewpoint, the build-up to a cataclysm, etc.), Gunty wields these elements with such freshness and sophistication that the book feels thrilling and new. Over the course of a week, the residents intersect in ways that reveal the extent of their alienation.
Or maybe its true central character is Vacca Vale, with its crumbling infrastructure and its unspoiled park, under threat from a proposed economic revitalization effort. At its center is Blandine Watkins, an ethereal child of the foster care system with a terrifying brilliance and an affinity for Christian mystics. Tess Gunty’s debut novel features the misfit residents of an affordable housing complex in Vacca Vale, Indiana, a dying post-industrial city in the Midwest.
Penguin Random House The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty - WINNER
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