Вхід або реєстрація
Для відслідковування статусу замовлень та рекомендацій
Щоб бачити терміни доставки
A twisted, exhilarating and darkly strange vision of our time, explored in thirteen interconnected episodes.
Welcome, dear visitor, to a proud and storied nation. When you put down this guidebook, look around you. A nation isn’t land. A nation is people. Equal parts speculative and satirical, the stories in Matthew Baker's collection portray a world within touching distance of our own. This is an America riven by dilemmas confronting so many of us, turned on its head by one of the most innovative voices of the moment. Read together, these parallel-universe stories create a composite portrait of our true nature and a dark reflection of the world we live in.
"A little revelation . . . The fantastical tales in this delightful book poke, with gleeful audacity, at the edges of contemporary America and late capitalism . . . Transitions of sex, gender, family, geographical borders, digital communication, language and even neurological states are examined in thrillingly imaginative stories . . . A witty, exuberant collection which variously reminded me of The Paper Menagerie, Friday Black, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Years and Years. Mind-bending, like all the best drugs" - Big Issue
"There’s a skew-whiff wonderfulness to the thirteen tales in this off-kilter look at contemporary America and all its contradictions . . . Tackling hot-button topics, Baker tip-tilts the perspective, offering something at once strange yet instantly familiar . . . It’s all masterfully done, and Baker’s prose is engagingly easeful, yet hypnotically elegant" - Daily Mail
"Conspicuously talented . . . Baker never takes the easy way out. He doesn’t brandish sharp swords at American capitalism or consumer excess or fears that masquerade as politics. Neither does he construct straw men, then ask the reader to applaud when he lights them on fire. Instead, he demonstrates charity toward his characters, who as Americans stand in for the prismatic nature of the country itself" - Washington Post
"Satirical and deeply humane, these poignant stories expose the moral bankruptcy at the rotten core of the American social contract" - Esquire
"Baker’s writing is taut yet lyrical, and brims with sensitivity towards the pitfalls of human experience" - The Rumpus
"This is the first of its kind, a work born of a deep understanding and a philosophical awareness of how things are. Over a century ago James Joyce aimed to write a moral history of his country: Matthew Baker has achieved that for his own. At the end of this acclaimed and untouchable collection there has been horror, but what remains is love" - Lunate
"Baker has a knack for this: for placing us in situations that are as foreseeable as they are creative; his musical, visual storytelling swaying us on-side, eliciting, ‘ahs’ and ‘ohs’, while we devour his original ideas about modern society. Within each parable, a sense of hope … It is this that makes his work most memorable (and with our current situation, relevant) long after reading" - Port
"Baker’s prose is astonishingly crisp, whilst his imagination and storytelling prowess are masterfully original and deeply touching, causing the reader to lose themselves in this most beguiling and transforming collection – once you’ve read Why Visit America, you’ll feel changed, you’ll feel enlightened and most of all you’ll be witnessing greatness" - Storgy Magazine
A twisted, exhilarating and darkly strange vision of our time, explored in thirteen interconnected episodes.
Welcome, dear visitor, to a proud and storied nation. When you put down this guidebook, look around you. A nation isn’t land. A nation is people. Equal parts speculative and satirical, the stories in Matthew Baker's collection portray a world within touching distance of our own. This is an America riven by dilemmas confronting so many of us, turned on its head by one of the most innovative voices of the moment. Read together, these parallel-universe stories create a composite portrait of our true nature and a dark reflection of the world we live in.
"A little revelation . . . The fantastical tales in this delightful book poke, with gleeful audacity, at the edges of contemporary America and late capitalism . . . Transitions of sex, gender, family, geographical borders, digital communication, language and even neurological states are examined in thrillingly imaginative stories . . . A witty, exuberant collection which variously reminded me of The Paper Menagerie, Friday Black, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Years and Years. Mind-bending, like all the best drugs" - Big Issue
"There’s a skew-whiff wonderfulness to the thirteen tales in this off-kilter look at contemporary America and all its contradictions . . . Tackling hot-button topics, Baker tip-tilts the perspective, offering something at once strange yet instantly familiar . . . It’s all masterfully done, and Baker’s prose is engagingly easeful, yet hypnotically elegant" - Daily Mail
"Conspicuously talented . . . Baker never takes the easy way out. He doesn’t brandish sharp swords at American capitalism or consumer excess or fears that masquerade as politics. Neither does he construct straw men, then ask the reader to applaud when he lights them on fire. Instead, he demonstrates charity toward his characters, who as Americans stand in for the prismatic nature of the country itself" - Washington Post
"Satirical and deeply humane, these poignant stories expose the moral bankruptcy at the rotten core of the American social contract" - Esquire
"Baker’s writing is taut yet lyrical, and brims with sensitivity towards the pitfalls of human experience" - The Rumpus
"This is the first of its kind, a work born of a deep understanding and a philosophical awareness of how things are. Over a century ago James Joyce aimed to write a moral history of his country: Matthew Baker has achieved that for his own. At the end of this acclaimed and untouchable collection there has been horror, but what remains is love" - Lunate
"Baker has a knack for this: for placing us in situations that are as foreseeable as they are creative; his musical, visual storytelling swaying us on-side, eliciting, ‘ahs’ and ‘ohs’, while we devour his original ideas about modern society. Within each parable, a sense of hope … It is this that makes his work most memorable (and with our current situation, relevant) long after reading" - Port
"Baker’s prose is astonishingly crisp, whilst his imagination and storytelling prowess are masterfully original and deeply touching, causing the reader to lose themselves in this most beguiling and transforming collection – once you’ve read Why Visit America, you’ll feel changed, you’ll feel enlightened and most of all you’ll be witnessing greatness" - Storgy Magazine