Literary and fantastical. Stories from the history of an empire that never was. Slow, vaguely dream-like, in quite a distinctive voice. Very much told in the form of storytelling, in the sense that it is as if they are being told orally by storytellers. Not high fantasy, which you might stereotypically expect when the words “fantastical” and “empire” appear early in the description, but rather almost fairy tales, though mostly longer and more meandering than I would usually understand fairy tales to be. It is the first of the many books by Argentinian writer Angélica Gorodischer to be translated into English – and translated, interestingly, by the famous late author Ursula K. Le Guin. Probably not to everyone’s taste, by I really enjoyed it.
Originally posted by Scott on Goodreads.