Republic of Consciousness Class of 2021: The Appointment by Katharina Volckmer (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Between March 8th and March 19th we will be posting ten pieces on our blog celebrating the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2021 longlist. There will be interviews, extracts and articles, with each piece focussing on a longlisted book.
Today, it’s the turn of Katharina Volckmer’s The Appointment, which — in addition to being longlisted for the prize — is a TLS Book of the Year. Check out Katharina’s five indie press book recommendations below.
1. The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili, tr. Charlotte Collins & Ruth Martin (published by Scribe UK)
One hundred years of Georgian history, love, war, revolutions and chocolate. The Eighth Life is one of the few novels that I still remember vividly even though it’s been a few years since I first read it. And it’s also one of those novels, I can’t stop talking about. I’m in awe of Haratischwili’s storytelling and the way she manages to paint a picture of the 20th century with such effortless prose, yet without leaving out any of its cruelties. The way she creates a world that feels magical yet at the same time painfully real.
2. The Employees. A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn, tr. Martin Aitken (published by Lolli Editions)
This book is a little jewel. Olga Ravn’s short novel is composed of a series of short statements by employees given on board a spaceship, millions of miles away from earth. Some of them are human and others are created. The way Ravn manages to tell a story through these statements and how she thereby creates very powerful dynamics - a drama that slowly unfolds in front of our eyes - makes for an immensely enjoyable read. She perfectly captures the absurdity but also the beauty not just of life onboard this particular spaceship but about the human (and non-human) experience in general.
3. Permafrost by Eva Baltasar, tr. Julia Sanches (published by And Other Stories)
Permafrost strikes the perfect balance between passion, a dark sense of humour and tenderness. It’s a novel about the beauty of love, death and suicide and I really enjoyed the narrator’s dark sense of humour, her anger and her journeys from Barcelona to Brussels and Scotland. An exploration of contemporary lesbian life and relationships, this novel is a reminder of the limits of our freedom as well as a perfect guide for how to rebel against them. The way it plays with our notions of suicide is very clever and the Catholic in me was of course very fond of her irreverent depictions of Jesus and his followers.
4. Fish Soup by Margarita García Robayo, tr. Charlotte Coombe (published by Charco Press)
Fish Soup is a collection of novellas and stories about the reality of life for young girls and women in a society still dominated by Catholic values and thought. Her prose is sharp and brutal and I found it impossible to escape the ambiguity she creates around her characters and the complex relationships we develop towards them. I always love writers who have the courage to go all the way and I found this courage on every page of her writing and especially in Sexual Education which is a story that still haunts me. Not afraid of the brutal aspects of human life, she finds a way to depict them that don’t omit our own involvement in them. A writer who doesn’t let her readers off the hook.
5. The Iraqi Christ by Hassan Blasim, tr. Jonathan Wright (published by Comma Press)
I often say to people that these are the best short stories I ever read. And even though I don’t like superlatives, I do think that these stories are really special. They do away with everything we thought we ever knew about Iraq and the wars and conflicts we associate with that country. This is relentless prose at its very best and it doesn’t leave any space for our own little lies and self-deceptions. I’m full of admiration for the strength and courage it must have taken to write these stories, for the incredible talent that they bear witness to and though they will not make you feel particularly good about being a human being on this planet today, I’m immensely grateful that they exist.
The Appointment is available to buy on Fitzcarraldo’s website here.