The Deixis Press Weekly - Issue #49
Good afternoon, my little libro amigos,
Quick promo moment: before I get into Deixis books, I want to make a recommendatione1 to those of you who enjoy audio dramas:
Basically, if you like books and authors and tales that spiral into, well, unpleasantness, you will love this. But don’t trust me; here’s a review:
If you're hankering for modern writing with that classic noir flavour, look no further. An exchange of emails sets a sinister foundation: the arrogant author of historical romances finds inspiration from an infatuated fan. A collision of exploitation and obsession is in motion.
Onto the books!
So James Kinsley’s GREYSKIN is officially running wild. I’m so delighted to see this book finally in people’s hands—and all over the world, it seems, as it appears to have sold more in pre-orders in the USA than even I expected to see (and you know me; I expect that EVERYONE will and should read ALL of the books I publish, so my standards are high).
I’m so proud to have an author like James as part of the Deixis family, who commands this kind of incroyable reviewage:
Much of the collection echoes of J M Coetzee’s work, particularly his 1980 novel ‘Waiting for the Barbarians.’ Like Coetzee, Kinsley uses his narratives to reveal the fear and lack of understanding colonisers and settlers had when it came to understanding the indigenous people who lived on the land before them, and how this fear led to violence. … Coetzee’s work highlights the assertions surrounding the binary of colonial discourse in a slightly satirical way (eg. Barbarians break the colonizers plates because they are uncivilised and therefor do not use or like plates). Kinsley uses his narratives in much the same way, emphasising the attitudes surrounding not only the indigenous people, but women, the settlers, morality and marriage. Much like Coetzee’s statement ‘show me a barbarian army and I will believe,’ Kinsley’s collection reveals how most of the misconceptions around others are based entirely on rumour, fear, misunderstandings, racism, sexism, misogyny, anthropocentrism and, put simply, the arrogance or Empire.
(from Lucy Nield at The Fantasy Hive. Damn, girl!)
I’ve got a few copies left, so hit me up at the press storefront if you somehow haven’t managed to buy your copy yet.
(There’s also, like, some new press merch there, too. —No, don’t, it’s too embarrassing. If I could make the font of this paragraph smaller I would. But I do like the sample mug2 and totebag and shirt that I got for myself.)
The NEXT book, my friends, is only a couple of weeks away! We have got Siôn Scott-Wilson’s WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND just waiting to jump into your eyes and snuggle straight down into your warm, pliant occiptal lobe.
DO note that author quote. Just DO note it.
Now, of course this cover echoes SOME RISE BY SIN, but you’ll note that there’s a single figure on this one: a boy. And a boy is the main concern of this new book, but the specific boy on the cover here was a real boy. His name was Carlo Ferrari and he was called “The Italian Boy,” and he has a particularly tragic backstory that has been neatly summarized by, of all people, an antique figurine collector in Staffordshire.
As with the first book in the series, I’m so grateful that the Wellcome Collection has made these images available to the world at large. It’s so gratifying, when making meaningful books, to be able to use meaningful cover art too.
I feel like there was more that I was going to say. Hmm. If I remember anything, I’ll make a note of it for next week.
Yours,
Angel
Nigella pronunciation
I got the “mug with color inside” but you don’t have to fill it with whipped cream as the site seems to suggest. I don’t have enough technical understanding to change the mockup there. And the other “glossy” mugs don’t seem to ship to the UK? but again I don’t have the technical know-how to remove it from the store. Lolle, I used to be in charge of IT strategy, ha ha ha ha ha