Books I Read April 13th, 2026

Keep your head up.

Yeah, you.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka– In a Sri Lankan version of the afterlife curiously akin to that of the movie Beetlejuice, the ghost of a hard-living homosexual war photographer searches for his killer, tries to save his loved ones. A perfectly engaging work of urban fantasy in an unfamiliar setting that also apparently won the Booker prize. On balance, I think I probably preferred the Alain Mabanckou book from a few weeks back which has basically the same plot.

People From Bloomington by Budi Darma – Short fiction loosely detailing the lives of middle-Americans in the eponymous Indiana locale, in which Darma completed his doctorate, written in the author's native Indonesian. In the introduction he explains it as gentle reversal of the Westerner tradition of exoticization when writing about the East, with his goal being to write stories which could be told anywhere. The result is a successful if curiously deracinated series of stories about lonely souls slowly going mad in tiny rooms in shared houses which does seem meaningfully accessible to individuals of many different cultural swathes. I enjoyed it.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang – Short science fiction of the sort which consists of working through the ramifications of an abstract intellectual premise, i.e. a universe in which divine creation is an irrefutable scientific fact, the development of AI humanity in a capitalist society. I generally don't care for this style of genre fiction, in part because the people writing it usually aren't very good at writing as writing but also because it's just really difficult to extrapolate in this vein in a way that feels interesting and original. Hughes is one of the few writers I've read capable of it. These are genuinely thoughtful, the questions they raise are serious and the answers they offer valuable. Good stuff.

Reasons of State by Alejo Carpentier – A surprisingly kindly entry in the genre of 'Dictator Fiction,' books written from the perspective of a tyrant. South America seems largely responsible for the creation of the genre, although in recent years the best versions have come from Africa. Carpentier's anonymous anti-hero is an amiable, cultured monster, whose amoral charisma keeps him atop his unnamed nation despite repeated attempts at revolution. Carpentier seems oddly fond of his creation given his monstrosities, which doesn't really detract from the fun of the work but is an odd perspective to take from a man who fled his native Cuba during the Batista regime. Update: Apparently he wrote this on a bet with Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Which makes sense.

The Rage by Gene Kerrigan – Competent Irish noir.

This Other Salt by Aamer Hussein – Short stories from a wealthy Pakistani living in self-imposed exile.

Creole by Jose Eduardo Agualusa – Epistolary adventures from a Portuguese aristocrat fighting against slavery in Angola and Brazil. Perfectly enjoyable.

Running Through Beijing by Xu Zechen – The misadventures of a pirate DVD salesman in Beijing, one of Xu's impoverished yet strangely honorable urban immigrants in a new China which feels at once infinite with possibility and cripplingly stifling. Totally up my alley, this was a lot of fun.

Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami – Far future science fiction.

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut – Exaggerated retellings of the mental collapses of some of the major contributors to mathematics and quantum physics. This was perfectly engaging and philosophically coherent but I admit I was sort of hoping to have learned more about the actual subjects involved. Perhaps they're simply too abstract for a layman to grasp in even a simplified version.