The release date for the English version of 'Homesick for Another World' by
Ottessa Moshfegh is Jan 2017. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
One of today's most intriguing short story authors' explosive debut collection
Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh's first book, was one of the literary highlights of 2015. Acclaimed by critics, it was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and received the PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction. It was also selected a book of the year by The Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. However, as several reviewers pointed out, Moshfegh's short tales are especially regarded with admiration. In rare cases, an author's collection of short stories is even more anticipated than her book; one such instance is Homesick for Another World.
And with good cause. Ottessa Moshfegh's tales are lovely and sometimes laugh-out-loud humorous, but they also have an oddly unnerving, even frightening quality. All of her characters struggle with balance in one way or another; they all want for improvement and connection, but they all experience these things in very different ways, and they are often derailed by their own baser instincts and existential fears. Homesick for Another World is a master lesson in the many ways that people who symbolise the human condition may deceive themselves.
But part of what makes her voice special, what makes her experience really Moshfeghian, is the way she infuses sensitivity and compassion into the grotesque and ridiculous. Our Flannery O'Connor is Moshfegh, and her Everything That Rises Must Converge or A Good Man is Hard to Find is Homesick for Another World. People are nasty, foolish, and unkind to one other; the wood is crooked; and the body is feeble. But weird things may produce beauty. Furthermore, these tales' dark energy is very energising. We are in the capable hands of a writer with a vast intellect, a generous heart, formidable skills, and razor-sharp political acumen. Before we even feel the prick, the needle enters the vein.
Self-improvement -- Mr. Wu -- Malibu --
The oddballs
A narrow, gloomy lane where decent people have no place **
Being a downer
A sincere female **
What beach boy?
Here, nothing ever occurs.
Dancing under the moon --
The substitute
The closed space
An improved location