A lack of words, for once

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Committed picks up the story from his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Sympathizer. Our nameless hero – now a refugee in Paris – is grappling with questions of identity and history, while also dealing with grittier concerns in the Parisian underworld. Check out Thúy Đinh’s review here.

S.B. Divya’s debut novel is set in a version of the future that seems unsettlingly plausible – a world where chemical buffs and implants help people survive in an overclocked gig economy. But everything is turned upside down when a mysterious organization called The Machinehood demands change. 

“That Machinehood goes on to upend long-established laws of robotics, question longstanding political machinations, establish a credible voyeurism-based sub-economy, and take us on a thrilling who-done-it through the advent of the singularity are only a few of the novel’s accomplishments,” says our critic Fran Wilde – check out her full review here.

Cranquis: Even though you want to wait to see your pulmonologist next week about this new shortness of breath – instead of doing ANYTHING I’ve recommended today – I still want to test you for COVID-19 before you leave my Urgent Care. I know the specialist’s clinic will not see you with these symptoms unless you get tested first.

SOB with SOB: Nope (pant) I don’t want it (puff) because covid (wheeze) is a hoax.

Cranquis:

Few days ago I had a shift and this dude came in with a week long fevers and chills and nothing more. Lab was normal. Covid positive. He is doing fine rn but it can literally go south anyday.

When friends or family call and ask me if I thi k that it is safe to travel i am always like fuck no. It isnt. The fact that airplane tickets are super cheap and a lot of countries are lifting bans is not bc we have under control but bc capitalism.