#1 — a spider weaves, weaves

january book rec (& welcome back!)

January 31, 2024

Hello, thank you for subscribing. If you’re reading this, it’s because you signed up to my old newsletter, or because you just signed up to this new one—in any case, welcome (or welcome again).

In this newsletter, you can expect updates of my work every month, like stories I published or news about my upcoming novella BUT NOT TOO BOLD. I might also add books that I’ve been reading lately, and there will always be at least one recommended translation at the end of every monthly email. Nothing too overwhelming. I just have this strong aversion to social media, and promoting is part of the work of a writer, so here we are.

It’s always unsettling to talk about work in cruel times. Times in which human life, dignity and joy are not only violated, but publicly and gleefully scorned, like we are seeing right now in Palestine, and like we have seen (or gone through) so many other times. Our capacity to help, as individuals, might seem limited, but there’s always something we can do. So keep protesting, boycotting, and openly opposing the atrocities committed in Gaza. Here’s a list of places you can donate to in Palestine, from esims to humanitarian aid, businesses and fundraisers.

Hache 🕷️

Hotel Iris 🇯🇵 ホテル・アイリス

(Yōko Ogawa, 1996, trans. Stephen Snyder)

You might know Ogawa from her most famous works like the brilliant The Memory Police, which will be adapted into a movie with Lily Gladstone as the unnamed protagonist, but Hotel Iris is a different beast. Mari, a teenage girl working in her mother’s crumbling hotel, becomes attracted to an older man who lives on a small island next to her seaside town. Some believe he might have murdered his wife, and Mari finds herself between her controlling mother, her sadistic lover, his young nephew, and everything they represent.

Honestly, reading anything written by Yōko Ogawa is a delight, no matter how dark, and this short novel (practically a novella) is no different. Her prose is beautifully succinct, and it draws you in as soon as you start, with an atmosphere that is strange, oppressive, and placid at the same time.