Erewhon Books 2021 Year in Review
Thank you for all of your support of our authors this year. Here is a list of some of the accolades they've earned. Please consider these titles as we approach awards season for the year 2021.
On Fragile Waves by E. Lily Yu, February 2, 2021
Featured in the LA Review of Books (Link)
Booklist Editors' Choice: Adult Titles (Link)
A New York Times Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novel of 2021 (Link)
Washington Independent Review of Books 51 Favorite Books of 2021 (Link)
2021 Locus Recommended Reading List (Link)
British Science Fiction Association Award longlist (Link)
★ Starred Review in Publishers Weekly (Link
“Yu’s outstanding debut opens with an enticing work of visual poetry that sets the stage for a story built of stories about the hopes of a family searching for a place where they can feel safe . . . In flowing, lyrical prose, Yu showcases the power of folklore and the pain of displacement. This is a knockout.”
★ Starred Review in Library Journal (Link)
“Essential fiction to understand our world; Yu will draw in new fans while continuing to intrigue those who have read her for years.”
★ Starred Review in Booklist (Link)
“Yu’s writing is poetic, the lines of her dialogue strumming into one another, mirroring the way that Firuzeh’s stories begin to blend reality and folklore—as Firuzeh crafts tales to make sense of her reality, and as the incomprehensible tragedies around her morph into imaginary friends that Firuzeh and Nour can’t seem to shake. On Fragile Waves is a lyrical fabulist novel that will enchant readers of both literary fiction and fantasy.
★ Starred Review in Foreword Magazine (Link)
“On Fragile Waves is a masterful and poetic novel about finding hope and joy in the most dire circumstances.”
Review in New York Times Book Review (Link)
“This is Yu’s first novel, but you’d never know it from the surety of her approach, the immensity of what she achieves . . . On Fragile Waves is a tremendous and almost unbearable work of witness. It is devastating and perfect.”
Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2021 (Link)
“In shimmering prose, Yu balances despair with hope as she probes the limits and the power of storytelling.”
NPR Best Books of 2021 (Link)
“One of the most devastatingly beautiful books I read all year.”
Rise of the Red Hand by Olivia Chadha, February 2, 2021
2021 Locus Recommended Reading List (Link)
Kirkus Reviews (Link)
"Steeped in elements from real-life South Asian cultures, the worldbuilding is original and intriguing, incorporating dystopian and utopian elements along with current hot issues such as societal inequities, digital surveillance, and technology’s impact on humanity.... [A] strong and intricate story."
Locus Magazine (Link)
"Rise of the Red Hand proves itself willing to shatter daringly all its initial assumptions and verities, putting its cast through life-altering fires, in order to create new forms of beauty and hope and possible salvation."
Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur, April 21, 2020
A New York Times Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novel of 2021 (Link)
Indie Next Pick of May 2021 (Link)
An NPR Best Book of 2021 (Link)
“[A] beautiful meditation on childhood trauma as well as an exploration into Korean heritage... a gorgeous journey into the intersection of science and myth and how our past traumas shape us – but how they need not define us."
New York Times Book Review (Link)
“Folklorn loops in and out of itself like a ghost’s red-ribboned braids, like a woman’s voice harmonizing with its own echoes. It’s beautiful and hard and hungry, full of sharp, painful observations, slicing clichés open like prickly pears and devouring their hearts.”
The Unraveling by Benjamin Rosenbaum, June 8, 2021
★ Starred Review in Booklist (Link)
“This beautifully written debut is a thorough, well-realized picture of a world with a radically different concept of gender and the body that nonetheless has its own forms of oppression. Rosenbaum's novel is essential reading for anyone interested not only in speculative fiction that plays with gender norms, but also in quality SF in general. Highly recommended.”
Publishers Weekly Review (Link)
“With this ambitious first novel . . . Rosenbaum’s story offers a complex meditation on fame, taboo, gender, and social control. Dense, inventive worldbuilding. . . tempered by the competent plotting and deeply human emotional core. Readers of secondary-world science fiction and science fantasy will find this to be as mind-bending as it is satisfying.”
Chicago Review of Books (Link)
"A wildly inventive, funny, and ultimately quite heartfelt novel, The Unraveling is a chaotic romp of gender deconstruction packaged up in a groovy science-fictional coming-of-age tale."
British Science Fiction Association Award longlist (Link)
The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw, September 7, 2021
Collaborative pre-order game “Sisyphus,” designed by award-winning game designer, Jeeyon Shim, resulting in a strong showing and a lot of publicity.
★ Starred Review in Library Journal (Link)
“Khaw’s first full-length novel is a sensory deluge of language and action that will sweep readers away in a flood of joyful, violent abandon.”
Review in Publishers Weekly (Link)
“Khaw delivers a gore-drenched, sci-fi take on Ocean’s Eleven set in a Gibsonesque cyberverse . . . Khaw employs densely poetic prose to capture betrayal, rage, injury, and death . . . the fury and lyricism make for an adventure that doubles as a cathartic scream.”