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by Thora Hjörleifsdóttir
A compulsive, propulsive debut about a young woman's haunting experience of love, abuse, and sex in an era of pornification by one of Iceland's most provocative writers.
20-year old Lilja is in love. As a young university student, she is quickly smitten with the intelligent, beautiful young man from school who quotes Derrida and reads Latin and cooks balanced vegetarian meals. Before she even realizes, she's moved in with him, living in his cramped apartment, surrounded by sour towels and flat Diet Cokes. As the newfound intimacy of sharing a shower and a bed fuels her desire to please her partner, his acts of nearly imperceptible abuse continue to mount undetected. Lilja desperately tries to be the perfect lover, attempting to meet his every need. But in order to do so, she gradually lets go of her boundaries and starts to lose her sense of self.
With astounding clarity and restraint, Hjörleifsdóttir sheds light on the commonplace undercurrents of violence that so often go undetected in romantic relationships. She deftly illustrates the failings of psychiatric systems in recognizing symptoms of cruelty, and in powerful, poetic prose depicts the unspooling of a tender-hearted woman desperate to love well.
"[P]oet Hjörleifsdóttir's heart-wrenching American debut is a raw and empathetic depiction of a woman so subtly manipulated into an abusive relationship that she loses her sense of self and cannot find a way out ... The short but powerful entries are masterfully written, showcasing how quickly and quietly an abusive relationship can form in the name of love." —Booklist
"[U]nsettling ... an achingly plausible mix of verve and bluntness ... Throughout, Hjorleifsdottir's fresh prose disturbingly evokes the young woman's unmoored state. The burnished micro-chapters form a narrative necklace of gems." —Publishers Weekly
"Bulleted, candid, first-person prose that parallels the quickness in which women's lives can become less their own." —Literary Hub
This information about Magma was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Thora Hjörleifsdóttir has published three poetry collections with her poetry collective, Imposter Poets. She lives in Reykjavík. Magma is her first novel.
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