{"title":"Books by Sofia Samatar","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781593767662","title":"Opacities","description":"\u003cb\u003eLonglisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOpacities\u003c\/i\u003e is a book about writing, publishing, and friendship. Rooted in an epistolary relationship between Sofia Samatar and a friend and fellow writer, this collection of meditations traces Samatar's attempt to rediscover the intimacy of writing\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a series of compressed, dynamic prose pieces, Samatar blends letters from her friend with notes on literature, turning to Édouard Glissant to study the necessary opacity of identity, to Theresa Hak Kyung Cha for a model of literary kinship, and to a variety of others, including Clarice Lispector, Maurice Blanchot, and Rainer Maria Rilke, for insights on the experience and practice of writing.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn so doing, Samatar addresses a number of questions about the writing life: Why does publishing feel like the opposite of writing? How can a black woman navigate interviews and writing conferences without being reduced to a symbol? Are writers located in their biographies or in their texts? And above all, how can the next book be written?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBlurring the line between author and character and between correspondence and literary criticism, \u003ci\u003eOpacities\u003c\/i\u003e delivers a personal, contemplative exploration of writing where it lives, among impassioned conversations and the work of beloved writers.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44581723898034,"sku":"9781593767662","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781593767662_43c6a0d2-fba2-4d5c-acfb-4dae5520da1f.jpg?v=1786023030"},{"product_id":"9780989141147","title":"Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond \u003c\/em\u003eis a groundbreaking speculative fiction anthology that showcases the work from some of the most talented writers inside and outside speculative fiction across the globe—including \u003cstrong\u003eJunot Diaz, Victor LaValle, Lauren Beukes, N. K. Jemisin, Rabih Alameddine, S. P. Somtow\u003c\/strong\u003e, and more. These authors have earned such literary honors as the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, among others.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A provocative, entertaining, and vital anthology.” —\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003cem\u003eMothership\u003c\/em\u003e may just be one of the most important SF anthologies of the decade.” —\u003cem\u003eThe Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“If the biggest revolution of the past 10 years has been an attempt (not yet successful) at making the stories in front of you look more like the world they are reflecting, then \u003cem\u003eMothership\u003c\/em\u003e could be like a table of contents for the future of science fiction. —NPR.org\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295623262581,"sku":"9780989141147","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780989141147_d68f3063-ca2c-48eb-83f2-4823d800fb1d.jpg?v=1786016190"},{"product_id":"9781618731654","title":"Tender","description":"\u003cp\u003eDivided into “Tender Bodies\" and “Tender Landscapes,” these twenty stories travel from the commonplace to the edges of reality.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301861601653,"sku":"9781618731654","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781618731654_818a772d-0860-4051-b612-c1629c2080e0.jpg?v=1786023505"},{"product_id":"9781931520768","title":"A Stranger in Olondria","description":"\u003cp\u003eJevik travels to the city of Olondria where he is overtaken by a ghost from his past.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309637972341,"sku":"9781931520768","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781931520768_d1306ddd-d17a-4d43-b2d6-9722d1df0a08.jpg?v=1786035045"},{"product_id":"9781787388079","title":"The White Mosque","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShortlisted for the 2023 PEN\/Jean Stein Book Award \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003cem\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e Best Book of The Year\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cem\u003eLiterary Hub\u003c\/em\u003e Most Anticipated Book of the Year\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA rich history of wanderers, exiles and intruders. A haunting personal journey through Central Asia. An intimate reflection on mixed identity shaped by cultural crossings.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the late 1800s, a group of German-speaking Mennonites fled Russia for Muslim Central Asia, to await Christ’s return.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver a century later, Sofia Samatar traces their gruelling journey across desert and mountains, and its improbable fruit: a small Christian settlement inside the Khanate of Khiva. Named ‘The White Mosque’ after the Mennonites’ whitewashed church, the village—a community of peace, prophecy, music and martyrs—lasted fifty years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWithin this curious tale, Sofia discovers a tapestry of characters connected by the ancient Silk Road: a fifteenth-century astronomer-king; an intrepid Swiss woman traveller; the first Uzbek photographer; a free spirit of the Harlem Renaissance. Along the way, in a voice both warm and wise, she explores her own complex upbringing as an American Mennonite of colour, the daughter of a Swiss-American Christian and a Somali Muslim.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn this pilgrimage to a lost village and a near-forgotten history, Samatar traces the porous borders of identity and narrative. When you leave your tribe, what remains? How do we enter the stories of others? And how, out of life’s buried archives and startling connections, does a person construct a self?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312880562549,"sku":"9781787388079","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781787388079_478bca83-6551-40bf-a560-873955078f05.jpg?v=1786026046"},{"product_id":"tone","title":"Tone","description":"Tone is a collaborative study of literary tone, a notoriously challenging and slippery topic for criticism. 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