The precocious author’s debut release was the December-January pick for the Outside Book Club. We spoke with him about his journey along the Magdalena, Colombia’s longest waterway, and his attempt to understand the quickly changing country
life going askew. All three books
set us in the present day, in places like Sydney, a Scottish lakeside retreat, and a small midwestern town. We meet characters who are going about their days and feeling, you know, normal levels of ennui. But then come the fires, earthquakes, accidents, and… human hibernation? These books take a literary approach to heavy themes like climate change and survival, but often with a satisfyingly weird bent that propels the stories forward and casts new light on familiar ideas. In other words, all of them would be ideal to absorb yourself in while late-season snowstorms swirl outside.
Barbara Demick’s
Nothing to Envy, which she describes as “a gripping examination of the so-called hermit kingdom through the voices of six defectors.” In
Eat the Buddha, Demick uses that same ability to turn out a “fair and measured narrative” to Tibet. “This time, she’s pieced together stories told by Tibetans from Ngaba County in China to shed light on the struggles that have taken place since China occupied Tibet [in 1950],” Rajesh explains. “Tracing and tracking down hundreds of eyewitnesses to events between 1958 to present day, she has conducted exhaustive interviews that allow her to recreate everything from the smell of burning villages and the screams of tortured grandparents to softer moments of salty yak butter glistening in tea.” Rajesh, who also visited Tibet by train for her own book, appreciated Demick’s even-handed approach. “We see the raw untouched land pre-invasion and witness the destruction of the natural surroundings as time goes o