The Race Is a Metafictional, Science-Fictional Mindbender
Nina Allan’s debut novel The Race is the best kind of metafiction: while the novel’s structure is incredibly engaging and easy to follow, it reveals its odd and vibrant world only by degrees, raising bit questions and only hinting at the answers, rather then spelling them out in bold text. In a display of mastery of narrative viewpoint, each story builds on and informs the previous narrator’s views; the multilayered structure elevates the work from a merely fascinating near-future story of looming environmental disaster into an unconventional, arresting meditation on memory, imagination, and the ways we attempt to cope with the trauma in our lives.
The Race
Paperback $14.95
The Race
By Nina Allan
In Stock Online
Paperback $14.95
The Race unfolds through four linked narrative threads and the eyes of four different narrators: Jenna Hoolman introduces us to the coastal town of Sapphire, deeply involved in racing illegally modified “smartdog” greyhounds; when her niece goes missing and her brother Derek seems the likely culprit, her family is forced to the brink of collapse. Christy Peller struggles to reconcile her uncomfortable relationship with her brother,which led her to start keeping journals about a fictional town called Sapphire.
In another thread, a P.I. named Alex is hired to investigate Derek over suspicious that he did something terrible to a former girlfriend. Finally, Maree, an employee of a research facility known as The Croft, takes a bizarre journey through an Atlantic filled with sapient whales to a facility with a mysterious purpose. With confidence that recalls the work of David Mitchell, as each character’s journey reaches its conclusion, their linked stories comment on one another, the unusual world the characters inhabit, and the equally strange connections between them.
The Race unfolds through four linked narrative threads and the eyes of four different narrators: Jenna Hoolman introduces us to the coastal town of Sapphire, deeply involved in racing illegally modified “smartdog” greyhounds; when her niece goes missing and her brother Derek seems the likely culprit, her family is forced to the brink of collapse. Christy Peller struggles to reconcile her uncomfortable relationship with her brother,which led her to start keeping journals about a fictional town called Sapphire.
In another thread, a P.I. named Alex is hired to investigate Derek over suspicious that he did something terrible to a former girlfriend. Finally, Maree, an employee of a research facility known as The Croft, takes a bizarre journey through an Atlantic filled with sapient whales to a facility with a mysterious purpose. With confidence that recalls the work of David Mitchell, as each character’s journey reaches its conclusion, their linked stories comment on one another, the unusual world the characters inhabit, and the equally strange connections between them.
Cloud Atlas
Paperback $19.00
Cloud Atlas
In Stock Online
Paperback $19.00
The novel plays remarkably well with the concept of the unreliable narrator. None of the characters are exactly truthful, and it is in this way the book guards its secrets. With the end of each narrative setting up the next, the perspective shifts also call the previous account into question. Details could be proved false, or something forgotten could be considered with greater clarity. In one case, what a person imagined might have occurred is shown to have been quite different from what really happened. The structure echoes the recurring themes of memory and imagination—each story is only one person’s account of events; the book as a whole creates a picture that might not be clearer, but contains much more detail.
Allan’s greatest strength is her willingness to allow ambiguity to creep into her narrative. Even at the close, much of The Race is open to interpretation. A final story that serves as a kind of epilogue only further blurs the lines, even as it ties off a few loose threads. It’s a book that rewards (but by no means requires) multiple close readings, as each journey through the narrative reveals new and subtle details, as the bleed between the disparate plots grows more apparent. Allan presents us with the pieces, and lets us figure out how they fit together; it takes some work, but rewards just as much.
The Race is available now.
The novel plays remarkably well with the concept of the unreliable narrator. None of the characters are exactly truthful, and it is in this way the book guards its secrets. With the end of each narrative setting up the next, the perspective shifts also call the previous account into question. Details could be proved false, or something forgotten could be considered with greater clarity. In one case, what a person imagined might have occurred is shown to have been quite different from what really happened. The structure echoes the recurring themes of memory and imagination—each story is only one person’s account of events; the book as a whole creates a picture that might not be clearer, but contains much more detail.
Allan’s greatest strength is her willingness to allow ambiguity to creep into her narrative. Even at the close, much of The Race is open to interpretation. A final story that serves as a kind of epilogue only further blurs the lines, even as it ties off a few loose threads. It’s a book that rewards (but by no means requires) multiple close readings, as each journey through the narrative reveals new and subtle details, as the bleed between the disparate plots grows more apparent. Allan presents us with the pieces, and lets us figure out how they fit together; it takes some work, but rewards just as much.
The Race is available now.