Welcome to Litsy!

#anditsaugust day 28: #indiepresses
Lots of great books being published by indie presses like Europa Editions, Graywolf Press, Chronicle Books, Pushkin Press, The Unnamed Press, Steerforth Press, and representing Singapore are Epigram Books and Math Paper Press.

TFW you might not be able to sleep because a book just messed with your mind 😶

I think it was @mauveandrosysky who sold me on this one. Not exactly a beach read but damn, it's so good I can't put it down.

This dark and disturbing book examines the way that mental illness can impact an entire family. We know from the opening chapter that the patriarch commits suicide when his children are still young, and this sets the gothic tone for everything that follows. It's a potent, complex and exciting debut. After a slow start, it becomes relentlessly gripping once the focus shifts to the children, culminating in a deeply haunting finale.

Birthday book haul!

This novel is an off the beaten trail sort of family saga, pulling back the curtain on a dysfunctional family patriarch and how his mental illness has a lasting influence on his family. I can't say too much without giving away all the family's skeletons, but I'll tell you that this book won't be what you think it is. The family's fate is much weirder, darker, and disturbing than your average multi-generational novel, but all the better for it.

Dismal & disturbing... Yet I had to finish & did appreciate the end.

A dark and disturbing exploration of love—and the great many things we think are love but aren't—and its consequences for ourselves and others. There are certainly other interesting themes in this book as well, but this is where my thoughts mainly dwelled while reading.

This book! I don't want to give anything away but you should read it. I don't think I've been as captivated by a set of characters since A Little Life (and yes, a similar level of darkness pervades this story and their lives).

It started out so differently than how I saw it continuing. The writing is haunting and Wang has done a brilliant job showing the inner thoughts of those with mental illness and their accompanying heartache.

This was an impulse buy at Book Passage in San Francisco. I hadn't heard of the book or the author before and spotted it while browsing the shelves. Among the things that made me pick it up: the author grew up in the SF Bay Area (where I live), set part of the book there, & part of it is told from the perspective of a Taiwanese woman. Also Kirkus Review quote: "Gothic in tone, epic in ambition, and creepy in spades." #augustphotochallenge

Dipping in to @esmewang's THE BORDER OF PARADISE while I wait for the music camp recital to begin.

I've already got five books on the go but I want to start every one of these NOW.

That was Gillian, and when I saw him come into the kitchen, holding her with a tenderness that I'd never seen before, I nearly screamed, but I was sitting with William in my lap, so I did not. William reached for her with wide eyes.

just read an excerpt from Esme Wang's website and am hooked. can't wait to pick this up soon.

Unsettling. Haunting. The Border of Paradise doesn't shy away from risking transgression. Esme Weijun Wang's effort pays off masterfully in her debut novel.