Reading God Is Disappointed in You, I began to question the wisdom of letting violent prisoners spend any time at all in their cells reading the real Bible. And should we really leave copies in hotel drawers, where innocent children could find them? This thing is bloody.
Slouka turns ambiguity into an asset, recreating the uncertainty of a boy trapped on thin ice who can hear the surface starting to snap but can’t see where the cracks are forming.
These moments transform the novel from mindless entertainment, as if it were a Bravo show on The Real Housewives of Singapore, into a revealing Economist-style feature.
Parravani tells the story of her twin sister, whose brutal rape led to a heroin addiction and her eventual death by overdose at the age of 28. Accustomed to mimicking her twin, Parravani began to emulate her self-destructiveness.