There’s a saying by the arcane Nietzsche that has gathered a reticence with time. It goes, “…when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” Now, say you are in midst of another existential grind. You seek to evade the sort of mundanity, or pain, which dogs you. Maybe you seek revelry or revolution. Or both! And at some point, in that grind, you come face to face with the void. The abyss which Nietzsche spoke of. As you hold a steady gaze towards it, at your most intimate moments, you suddenly notice it winks! How strange… Is this an acknowledgement of your doubts, aspirations and fears? Admiration? Umbrage? These books explore intimate viewpoints. They explore doubts, love, fear, dreams, and hopes adjacent to our own worlds. So, tell the abyss to dock a pair of updated prescriptions, the times are changing and so are we.
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“The Book of Disquiet” is the Portuguese modernist master Fernando Pessoa’s greatest literary achievement. An “autobiography” or “diary” containing exquisite melancholy observations, aphorisms, and ruminations, this classic work grapples with all the eternal questions. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a Black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of “the Brotherhood,” and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby or as eAudio on OverDrive/Libby.
The runaway bestseller that helped launch Korea’s new feminist movement, “Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982” follows one woman’s psychic deterioration in the face of rigid misogyny. In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul, Kim Jiyoung-a millennial “everywoman”-spends her days caring for her infant daughter. Her husband, however, worries over a strange symptom that has recently appeared: Jiyoung has begun to impersonate the voices of other women-dead and alive, both known and unknown to her. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
Whenever Korede’s younger sister Ayoola kills a man “in self-defense,” Korede is called upon to dispose of the body. But when Ayoola takes an interest in Korede’s longtime crush, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she’s willing to go to protect her. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby or as eAudio on OverDrive/Libby.
Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby or as eAudio on OverDrive/Libby.
Two young poets, Jan and Remo, find themselves adrift in Mexico City. Obsessed with poetry, and, above all, with science fiction, they are eager to forge a life in the literary world–or sacrifice themselves to it. Roberto Bolaño’s “The Spirit of Science Fiction” is a story of youth hungry for revolution, notoriety, and sexual adventure, as they work to construct a reality out of the fragments of their dreams. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby.