This Novel Captures the Unsettling Fragility of Post-Pandemic Life

  • 📰 AnOtherMagazine
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 60 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 27%
  • Publisher: 51%

United Kingdom Headlines News

United Kingdom Latest News,United Kingdom Headlines

.coeurdelilas discusses her debut novel, The Coming Bad Days – a mysterious and timely story of dread, isolation and feminine vulnerability

, is an enigma. “One question I struggle with most is what is the book about,” the Montreal-born author admits. “I was trying to create a sense of atmosphere, so it’s sort of hard to describe in one sentence.” But that atmosphere can be defined, at least in part, by its dread. Simmering under the surface of the book is a feeling of apprehension; a fear that something bad is about to happen, that a boiling point is about to be reached.

DS: There is a sense of dread simmering through the book – there’s an unexplained curfew, and the protagonist keeps talking about how she feels like something bad is going to happen. You wrote this before the pandemic, right? SB: Yeah. I mean, you hope that there will be an eventual break. But I think what’s scary is that it might never come to an end – we might just keep edging towards disaster forever until it’s too late to make a decision. And then we’re just screwed. I’m particularly talking about the climate crisis, where it does seem like our leaders are hedging their bets and seeing how long they can hold off because nobody wants to be the one to make the expensive decision, or take responsibility.

DS: The relationship between the protagonist and her friend Clara is fraught, intimate, competitive, and aSB: There’s something about the way these characters are so comfortable sitting with difficulty, to an almost pathological extent. I think obviously it’s crucial to sit with difficulty; we have to sit with discomfort in our lives. But these two people have no other mode of being. For the protagonist, particularly, difficulty is the only mode she knows.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 97. in UK

United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Raven Leilani wins Dylan Thomas prize for ‘fearless’ novel LusterUS author wins £20,000 award for writers under 39 – the age Thomas died – for her debut about a black woman who starts dating an older white man in an open marriage
Source: The Guardian - 🏆 84. / 53 Read more »

'I've quit lorry driving because student partying has made me a road danger'Tony Sandhu, 61, has lived on Balfour Road in Lenton, Nottingham all of his life but says the problem has become much worse during the pandemic - giving him sleepless nights Dummies- why aren't you reporting about what is happening in LOD? Are you guys supposed to be journalists? WAKE UP, and deliver the news. I fear there are about to be terrible atrocities!
Source: The Mirror - 🏆 136. / 51 Read more »

Boris Johnson: inquiry into handling of Covid crisis will start spring 2022Downing Street had angered grieving families by saying officials’ time would be better spent tackling pandemic Boris 'Let the bodies pile high' Johnson. It actually does sound like something he'd say, doesn't it. Can't wait to hear how this is all Jeremy Corbyn's fault Inquiry to be led by a Mr J Bohnson
Source: The Guardian - 🏆 84. / 53 Read more »

St Paul's Cathedral could close without tourism cashThe world famous cathedral has seen its finances devastated by the pandemic.
Source: BBCNews - 🏆 3. / 97 Read more »