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Review: Threads in Dew and Other Stories by Katja Bohnet, translated by Rachel Hildebrandt

Katja Bohnet
Threads in Dew and Other Stories by Katja Bohnet, translated by Rachel Hildebrandt (Weyward Sisters Publishing, forthcoming 2017)


From Weyward Sisters Press comes another powerful collection of stories, this time by German author Katja Bohnet. Gritty, hard-edged, and abrupt, these pieces explore the nooks and crannies of "noir," veering toward speculative fiction at times, careening toward horror at others.

The title story, along with "Asia, Mid-Flight" and "Indonesian Ping Pong," feature travelers encountering terrifying situations: getting stabbed in a cheap hostel, (imagining) getting sucked out of an airplane via the bathroom, dealing with shady characters on sparsely-populated islands. Bohnet's sentences are short and precise, like the stories themselves, taking us to the point without any fuss while leaving us lost in thought at each conclusion.