Vanja is from another colony, Essre, and she travels to Amatka for a work assignment - to assess the marketing possibilities there for the hygiene-product company she works for. The strangeness does not come anywhere close to ending there. If they don't, those objects will dissolve into what the main character Vanja, calls "gloop" - a formless substance that feels uncannily like living tissue. One of Amatka's many repressive rules is the requirement that citizens routinely repeat the names of certain marked objects in the colony. In Tidbeck's agricultural colony of Amatka, a totalitarian government rules over a deprived and economically depressed population. In Miéville's book, two fictional European city-states are superimposed upon each other, with residents of each forbidden to acknowledge the existence of the other. Not a moment too soon, either: Despite being originally published five years ago, its surreal vision of deadly conspiracies, political oppression, and curtailed freedom couldn't be more eerily timely.Īmatka takes place in one of the most audacious science-fiction settings since Besźel/Ul Qoma from China Miéville's The City and The City.
Tidbeck's debut novel Amatka came out the same year, in Swedish only - and it's seeing its first English translation now. Her 2012 short story collection, Jagganath, showcased her knack for sharp yet dreamlike tale-spinning.
In Sweden, one of the most promising authors of science fiction and fantasy in recent years has been Karin Tidbeck. The Nordic speculative-fiction scene has become increasingly prominent in the past few years, with authors such Leena Krohn and Johanna Sinisalo, both from Finland, garnering fresh attention and translations in the United States.
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