Unfortunately, the download for this book did not work properly and the text on a page was not in the right place, making it totally unredable.

Okay this could have been my fault but I had a hard time reading this one. Based on the description I was aware of the content I’d be reading but the formatting and the writing wasn’t for me. That took me out of the reading experience. I’m not sure if it’s the translation to English that also made some of it confusing but some of that also made the content hard to digest.

3.5/5 stars

You have to take this book for what it is. It’s hideously dark in light tones. Hilst rivals, or perhaps surpasses, Anaïs Nin in her treatment of the taboo; sodomy, cannibalism. Incest, a predominant topic of this book, especially the epistolary section, is not shied away from. The biting, witty jabs of a jealous brother writing his sister erotically can only be written in such a way: Hilst achieves this.

There is something to be said for the strength of Karl’s epistolary section as opposed to Tiu’s writings: I wished that the letters had taken up more of the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Pushkin Press Classics for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Unfortunately I was unable to finish this. This wasn’t for me in the slightest, I didn’t like the writing and couldn’t really get passed the first few pages.