Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin

Is there any better comfort food than grilled cheese and tomato soup? I think not.

Here's my lunch next to Elsewhere, the latest novel from Alexis Schaitkin and a darn good read.

Q: What is an author or a book that makes you see things in a new or exciting way?

For me Schaitkin has become one of those authors. I also love the insights of Ishiguro, and going back a bit, Dostoyevsky. I think there’s a particular mixture of psychology, philosophy and storytelling that makes my brain explode in a good way.

I am a nerd. I am willing to admit it.

About this book…

1 sentence summary:
Vera grows up in an isolated town that faces a singular affliction: some mothers vanish, disappearing into the clouds. 

—--

This book is a stand-out among the recent contemporary literary fiction I’ve read. Just as I felt the author’s last book, SAINT X, explored deeper themes than most stories in the thriller genre.

This story grapples subtly, in whispers, with mortality, nostalgia – the ache for a time that once was. A past that feels so familiar yet is long gone. 

The style in which the story is told reminds me of Kazuo Ishiguro’s storytelling, and this book specifically reminded me of NEVER LET ME GO. The writing itself reminds me a bit of the masterful Marilynne Robinson in its flow; its ability to study small moments yet connect them to the universal and eternal - to the big questions that haunt us, quietly, in the background.
 
The first part is an exploration of the pain, doubts and joys that rise and fall within the experience of motherhood, then it expands out – as the book continues  – to encompass the more universal trials of aging and living through change. How we become accustomed to what is even while longing - in quiet moments, when all is still or when something triggers a memory – for what once was. That intense sadness of knowing that we can never go back, or perhaps that even – if we could – it wouldn’t be the same because we are different.
 
There is just something about Schaitkin’s style that I love. She goes deep, yet somehow her prose floats lightly, in a way that is beautiful yet subtly haunting.
 
I will continue to read whatever Schaitkin writes! And I highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys a bit of magical realism or a bit of mystery or stories about motherhood or simply exceptional writing.
 
This comes out June 28th!

​Thank you Celadon for the ARC!