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Jagannath
Written by Karin Tidbeck
Narrated by Kirsten Potter
Book Actions
Start Listening- Publisher:
- HighBridge Audio
- Released:
- Feb 6, 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781684410712
- Format:
- Audiobook
Description
A child is born in a tin can. A switchboard operator finds himself in hell. Three corpulent women float somewhere beyond time. Welcome to the weird world of Karin Tidbeck, the visionary Swedish author of literary sci-fi, speculative fiction, and mind-bending fantasy who has captivated readers around the world. Originally published by the tiny press Cheeky Frawg—the passion project of Ann and Jeff VanderMeer—Jagannath has been celebrated by readers and critics alike, with rave reviews from major outlets and support from lauded peers like China Miéville and even Ursula K. Le Guin herself. These are stories in which fairies haunt quiet towns, and an immortal being discovers the nature of time—stories in which anything is possible.
Book Actions
Start ListeningBook Information
Jagannath
Written by Karin Tidbeck
Narrated by Kirsten Potter
Description
A child is born in a tin can. A switchboard operator finds himself in hell. Three corpulent women float somewhere beyond time. Welcome to the weird world of Karin Tidbeck, the visionary Swedish author of literary sci-fi, speculative fiction, and mind-bending fantasy who has captivated readers around the world. Originally published by the tiny press Cheeky Frawg—the passion project of Ann and Jeff VanderMeer—Jagannath has been celebrated by readers and critics alike, with rave reviews from major outlets and support from lauded peers like China Miéville and even Ursula K. Le Guin herself. These are stories in which fairies haunt quiet towns, and an immortal being discovers the nature of time—stories in which anything is possible.
- Publisher:
- HighBridge Audio
- Released:
- Feb 6, 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781684410712
- Format:
- Audiobook
About the author
Related to Jagannath
Reviews
But this collection is not just good: it has traveled with me. I don't have a long memory for short stories. I don't tend to return to them, re-read them, and collect them the way I do with novels. But I'm writing this a month later, and I am still turning these stories over in my head, looking for hidden places.
I don't think I've utterly loved every single story in a collection before, and certainly never as unreservedly as this.
I would highly recommend these stories for fans of Kelly Link and Theodora Goss. (As well as Ursula LeGuin, who blurbed it, and Elizabeth Hand, who wrote the introduction.)
Contains:
Beatrice - "If you love someone, set them free." If they don't come back... oh well. A steampunk tale of a man in love with an airship and a woman in love with a steam engine. Bizarre, disturbing, and an incisive commentary of the different types of feelings which we might call 'love.'
Some Letters for Ove Lindstrom - An estranged son finds his alcoholic father dead, and writes letters thinking back to when everything went wrong - when his mother disappeared. An effective mix of modern-day sensibilities and folklore.
Miss Nyberg and I - A glimpse out of the corner of an eye turns into a story that might be more true than its author guessed.
Rebecka - What if God insisted on repeatedly 'saving' a suicidal person, refusing to let them take their own life? What extremes might that person be driven to? A fantastic story that captures the harrowing feeling of friendship with a suicidal person.
Herr Cederberg - Escape from the cruelty of this world in an airship. Or is it a metaphor for suicide? Or is it transcendence? Reminded me of a less fleshed-out version of Theodora Goss' "The Wings of Meister Wilhelm."
Who Is Arvid Pekon? - A man is employed in a call center where the job involves pretending to be whoever it might be that the caller wishes to speak to. That's weird. But it gets weirder.
Brita's Holiday Village - A journal from a writer who takes a cottage in the off-season to get some work done in peace and quiet, and unexpectedly encounters something fragile and amazing.
Reindeer Mountain - Two sisters, rivals. A conflict over a family heirloom. A family tale, folklore about the mysterious Sidhe-like 'vittra.' One girl has always dreamed of other worlds. She'd be delighted to be swept off by a fairy lover to 'under the hill.' But that's not what happens.
Cloudberry Jam - Reminded me of a warped version of Thumbelina. A woman creates herself a child - but it's not a real human child, and can't be what she wants.
Pyret - A faux encyclopedia entry on an imaginary creature, read like it belongs in one of Jeff VanDerMeer's collections.
Augusta Prima - A look into what it might be like to live under a faery mound - from a fairy's point of view. Fairly horrifying.
Aunts - A further exploration of a element mentioned in passing in Augusta Prima. Like the preceding story, strongly horrific, but also sad.
Jagannath - A very China Mieville-esque story about a group of humans who have lived for generations inside a giant insect, dependent on it for every aspect of their lives. But their 'Mother' is dying... Grotesque and memorable.
One of my favorites is "Brita's Holiday Village", which you can read here. Another is "Pyret" which is a fascinating story presented like a research essay. It's about a creature that shape shifts to hide among herd animals like cows and eventually, in the case of one village that's mentioned, people. It changes from historical to present-time when she visits the old mostly abandoned village to see if there are any pyrets still there. What she finds is disturbing, it almost feels like horror. The ending is so poignant, it took my breath away. All of her stories had that kind of effect on me.
A story that shows off just how bizarre these stories can get is "Aunts." It's one of, if I remember correctly, two stories that are set in a kind of antiquated, royal, Alice in Wonderland kind of world. There are a set of three women whose sole purpose in life is to eat. A lot. So much so that they can't move. They're brought food in this little dome in an orchard until they actually burst. Once that whole mess is cleaned up, typically a new tiny aunt is clinging to the old one's heart. The story explores what happens when there isn't a tiny aunt waiting inside. Going to be honest, I had no idea what was going on, but it was certainly interesting and disturbing.
This hardly scratches the surface of the stories. There are people who are in love with machines, human bodies run like air ships by tinier people inside (sort of), world changing telemarketing, alternate dimensions, creature creation, fights with god, and more. If you're willing to open your mind for some really fantastical, almost mythical stories, Karen Tidbeck is an incredible writer with amazingly original stories to tell. They're inspired by sci-fi, folklore, and Nordic tradition. I heard that she has a novel out in Swedish, and I'm devastated that it is not translated and in my hands right now. I was really impressed by this collection of stories and can't wait to read more of Tidbeck's.
Introduction by Elizabeth Hand
"Similarly, Karin Tidbeck has written these stories so that readers may love them."
Beatrice
"Franz couldn't stop looking at her. Her body was a voluptuous oblong, matte skin wrapped tightly over a gently rounded skeleton."
Some Letters for Ove Lindström
"You did what a dad is supposed to do. You made sure I went to school; you cooked dinner; we watched television together; you helped me with homework. I was never yelled at. You were never mean. When you started drinking it was quietly, in the armchair by the television. You'd get distant and fall asleep at odd times. I learned to make myself dinner."
Miss Nyberg and I
"It made no resistance as you bent down and picked it up, lifted it into the kitchen and put it down on the table. You looked at each other for a while. Then you said:
'Did I grow you?'
It nodded in reply."
Rebecka
"I wanted to tell her to do something radical--jump from the West Bridge, throw herself in front of a train--just to get it over with. But I didn't have the heart."
Herr Cederberg
"He surveyed the little space. There was plenty of material to work with. He rolled up his shirt sleeves, took off his jacket, and started sketching a framework."
Who is Arvid Pekon?
"On Arvid Pekon's console, Subject 1297's light was blinking. He adjusted his headset, plugged the end of the cord into the jack by the lamp and said in a mild voice:
'Operator.'"
Brita's Holiday Village
"I stocked up on pasta and tomatoes and beans. I found old-fashioned whey-cheese, the kind that tastes like toffee. I'm eating it out of the box with a spoon."
Reindeer Mountain
"Cilla was twelve years old the summer Sara put on her great-grandmother's wedding dress and disappeared up the mountain."
Cloudberry Jam
"I made you in a tin can."
Pyret
"A mimic and an infiltrator, Pyret mingles with and assumes the form of pack- or herd animals, changing color and shape to match the others."
Augusta Prima
"More moisture ran down her temples, making tracks in the thick layers of powder. Her artful corkscrew curls were already wilting."
Aunts
"The Aunts had one single holy task: to expand."
Jagannath
"Another child was born in the great Mother, excreted from the tube protruding from the Nursery ceiling. It landed with a wet thud on the organic bedding underneath."
Author's Afterword: Transposing Worlds
"Writing in Swedish and English are two very different experiences. Your native language resonates in your bones. Each spoken word reaffirms and changes the world as you see it, intellectually and emotionally. Because Swedish is my mother tongue, I can take enormous liberties with it because I know exactly and instinctively how it works. English doesn't quite allow itself to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck in the same way. As a result, I'm more careful with the prose, perhaps less adventurous, because without that gut reaction it's hard to know exactly how something will resonate with an English-speaking reader. On the other, I may find paths into English that a native speaker might not, because there are aspects of your native tongue that you just don't see since you are standing in the middle of it."