Hexes of the Deadwood Forest
Agnieszka Szpila’s first book to be translated into English, includes the following: adult themes, adult content, adult language, violence, suicide, sexual assault, torture, murder, genocide, bestiality, cruelty to children, sex with moss, sex with grass, sex with mushrooms, sex with lichens, sex with feathers, sex with rotten vegetables and sex with frozen dirt. Your final warning? All this gets weirdly tedious ... The world Szpila conjures is improbably bloodless (for a book so steeped in bodily fluids), if hallucinatory ... At its most ingenious moments, the work lands as not just calumny, but also satire; the high-wire act of its unreliability is occasionally thrilling — and you can’t forget its sheer audacity.
Read Full Review >>
In this ribald, diabolically clever, fiercely feminist satire, daring Polish writer Szpila radiantly imagines three generations of women with profound knowledge of plants and trees who believe their communal orgasms in the woods sustain and nourish Earth. Szpila’s lacerating, sly, ecosexual tale offers recalibrating perspectives on history, sex, the sacred, environmental decimation, and woman power.
Read Full Review >>
Sprawling, bawdy ... Though there’s never a dull moment, the novel does become a bit repetitive in the middle—perhaps for good reason, since the domination of rebellious women has been a constant across centuries. Still, Szpila spins a rich, imaginative alternative to the usual phallocentric history.
Read Full Review >>
