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{"id":7118293631035,"title":"The Box","handle":"the-box","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOf course, each thing has its own sides to every story.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a dark and crooked lane in an unnamed city where it never ceases to snow, a small white box falls from a coat pocket. It is made of paper strips woven tightly together; there is no apparent way to open it without destroying it. What compels a passing witness, a self-described anthrophobe not inclined to engage with other people, to pick up the box and chase after the stranger who dropped it? \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Box\u003c\/em\u003e follows an impenetrable rectangular cuboid as it changes hands in a collapsing metropolis, causing confluences, conflicts, rifts, and disasters. Different narrators, each with a distinctive voice, give secondhand accounts of decisive moments in the box's life. From the anthrophobe to a newly hired curator of a renowned art collection, from a couple who own an antiquarian bookshop to a hotel bartender hiding from a terrible past, the storytellers repeat rumours and rely on faulty memories, grasping at something that continually escapes them. Haunting their recollections in one mysterious woman who, convinced of the box's good or evil powers, pursues it with deadly desperation. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this mesmerizing, intricately constructed puzzle of a novel, Mandy-Suzanne Wong challenges our understanding of subject and objects, of cause and effect. Is it only humans who have agency? What is or isn't animate? What do we value and what do we discard? \u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2023-04-03T10:38:39-04:00","created_at":"2023-04-03T09:20:47-04:00","vendor":"House of Anansi Press Inc","type":"","tags":["Adult New Releases","Anansi International","By (author) Wong Mandy-Suzanne","pub date: 2023-09-19","Technology \u0026 Politics","Thrillers \u0026 Mystery"],"price":1999,"price_min":1999,"price_max":2499,"available":true,"price_varies":true,"compare_at_price":null,"compare_at_price_min":0,"compare_at_price_max":0,"compare_at_price_varies":false,"variants":[{"id":41192451997755,"title":"trade paperback","option1":"trade paperback","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9781487012489","requires_shipping":true,"taxable":true,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"The Box - trade paperback","public_title":"trade paperback","options":["trade paperback"],"price":2499,"weight":290,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":null,"barcode":"9781487012489","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]},{"id":41192452292667,"title":"epub","option1":"epub","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9781487012496","requires_shipping":false,"taxable":true,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"The Box - epub","public_title":"epub","options":["epub"],"price":1999,"weight":0,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":null,"barcode":"9781487012496","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/houseofanansi.com\/cdn\/shop\/files\/BNCImageAPI_de8a3510-9975-4002-8df9-e11453fd6795.jpg?v=1697907671"],"featured_image":"\/\/houseofanansi.com\/cdn\/shop\/files\/BNCImageAPI_de8a3510-9975-4002-8df9-e11453fd6795.jpg?v=1697907671","options":["Title"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":23893936767035,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.667,"height":2475,"width":1650,"src":"\/\/houseofanansi.com\/cdn\/shop\/files\/BNCImageAPI_de8a3510-9975-4002-8df9-e11453fd6795.jpg?v=1697907671"},"aspect_ratio":0.667,"height":2475,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/houseofanansi.com\/cdn\/shop\/files\/BNCImageAPI_de8a3510-9975-4002-8df9-e11453fd6795.jpg?v=1697907671","width":1650}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOf course, each thing has its own sides to every story.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a dark and crooked lane in an unnamed city where it never ceases to snow, a small white box falls from a coat pocket. It is made of paper strips woven tightly together; there is no apparent way to open it without destroying it. What compels a passing witness, a self-described anthrophobe not inclined to engage with other people, to pick up the box and chase after the stranger who dropped it? \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Box\u003c\/em\u003e follows an impenetrable rectangular cuboid as it changes hands in a collapsing metropolis, causing confluences, conflicts, rifts, and disasters. Different narrators, each with a distinctive voice, give secondhand accounts of decisive moments in the box's life. From the anthrophobe to a newly hired curator of a renowned art collection, from a couple who own an antiquarian bookshop to a hotel bartender hiding from a terrible past, the storytellers repeat rumours and rely on faulty memories, grasping at something that continually escapes them. Haunting their recollections in one mysterious woman who, convinced of the box's good or evil powers, pursues it with deadly desperation. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this mesmerizing, intricately constructed puzzle of a novel, Mandy-Suzanne Wong challenges our understanding of subject and objects, of cause and effect. Is it only humans who have agency? What is or isn't animate? What do we value and what do we discard? \u003c\/p\u003e"}
{"AlsoRecommendedISBN_0":"9781487002350","AlsoRecommendedISBN_1":"9781487008604","AlsoRecommendedISBN_2":"9781487009977","BASICMainSubject":"FIC055000","BASICMainSubjectLiteral":"FICTION \/ Dystopian","BiographicalNote":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMANDY-SUZANNE WONG\u003c\/strong\u003e is a Bermudian writer of fiction and essays. Her works include the novel \u003cem\u003eDrafts of a Suicide Note\u003c\/em\u003e (Regal House, 2019); the essay collection \u003cem\u003eListen, we all bleed\u003c\/em\u003e (New Rivers Press, 2021); and the chapbooks \u003cem\u003eAwabi\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eArtificial Wilderness\u003c\/em\u003e. Her work has appeared in \u003cem\u003eArcturus\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBlack Warrior Review\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eCosmonauts Avenue\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eEntropy\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eIsland Review\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eNecessary Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e, and has won recognition in the Best of the Net, Aeon Award, and Eyelands Flash Fiction competitions.\u003c\/p\u003e","BISACSubjectLiteral_0":"FICTION \/ Dystopian","BISACSubjectLiteral_1":"FICTION \/ Literary","BISACSubject_0":"FIC055000","BISACSubject_1":"FIC019000","ContributorBio_0":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMANDY-SUZANNE WONG\u003c\/strong\u003e is a Bermudian writer of fiction and essays. Her works include the novel \u003cem\u003eDrafts of a Suicide Note\u003c\/em\u003e (Regal House, 2019); the essay collection \u003cem\u003eListen, we all bleed\u003c\/em\u003e (New Rivers Press, 2021); and the chapbooks \u003cem\u003eAwabi\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eArtificial Wilderness\u003c\/em\u003e. Her work has appeared in \u003cem\u003eArcturus\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBlack Warrior Review\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eCosmonauts Avenue\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eEntropy\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eIsland Review\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eNecessary Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e, and has won recognition in the Best of the Net, Aeon Award, and Eyelands Flash Fiction competitions.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n","ContributorRole_0":"By (author)","Contributor_0":"Wong, Mandy-Suzanne","Description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOf course, each thing has its own sides to every story.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a dark and crooked lane in an unnamed city where it never ceases to snow, a small white box falls from a coat pocket. It is made of paper strips woven tightly together; there is no apparent way to open it without destroying it. What compels a passing witness, a self-described anthrophobe not inclined to engage with other people, to pick up the box and chase after the stranger who dropped it? \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Box\u003c\/em\u003e follows an impenetrable rectangular cuboid as it changes hands in a collapsing metropolis, causing confluences, conflicts, rifts, and disasters. Different narrators, each with a distinctive voice, give secondhand accounts of decisive moments in the box's life. From the anthrophobe to a newly hired curator of a renowned art collection, from a couple who own an antiquarian bookshop to a hotel bartender hiding from a terrible past, the storytellers repeat rumours and rely on faulty memories, grasping at something that continually escapes them. Haunting their recollections in one mysterious woman who, convinced of the box's good or evil powers, pursues it with deadly desperation. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this mesmerizing, intricately constructed puzzle of a novel, Mandy-Suzanne Wong challenges our understanding of subject and objects, of cause and effect. Is it only humans who have agency? What is or isn't animate? What do we value and what do we discard? \u003c\/p\u003e","EAN":"9781487012489","excerpt_0":"https:\/\/biblioshare.org\/BNCservices\/BNCServices.asmx\/Samples?token=fcf85c1c1b298e99\u0026amp;ean=9781487012489\u0026amp;SAN=\u0026amp;Perspective=excerpt\u0026amp;FileNumber=0","Height":"8.25","HeightCode":"in","Imprint":"Anansi International","MetaKeywords":"social collapse;experimental writing;saha;cho nam joo;magical realism;social horror;psychological thriller;clifi;climate change;bermudian literature","NumberOfPages":"248","OtherText_Accolades_0":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Box\u003c\/em\u003e is an extraordinary novel, gamesome and philosophical. Not since Borges have I experienced fiction as a perfect maze or puzzle, endlessly pleasing. The reader enters it, fascinated, just as s\/he goes out into the snow, which is always falling. Mandy-Suzanne Wong is a writer to watch.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Accolades_0_Auth":"Amina Cain, author of A Horse at Night and Indelicacy","OtherText_Accolades_1":"\u003cp\u003eMandy-Suzanne Wong’s bold, singular, and brilliant novel\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003eis so strange, so enigmatic, it’s nearly impossible to describe. In an unnamed city with unending snow, a tiny box falls from a stranger's pocket. From there the reader is bestowed with an array of different narrators and situations: art galleries, pawnshops, antiquarian bookshops. By turns funny and profound, \u003cem\u003eThe Box \u003c\/em\u003eis a feat of language and storytelling and, in the end, a revelation.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Accolades_1_Auth":"Mark Haber, author of Saint Sebastian’s Abyss and Reinhardt’s Garden","OtherText_Accolades_2":"\u003cp\u003eIf one of César Aira’s sly, sophisticated fictions took a detour through Jane Bennett’s theory of vibrant matter, the result might look something like \u003cem\u003eThe Box\u003c\/em\u003e. At once a detective story, a meditation on art in the Anthropocene, and a speculative encounter with the liveliness of things, Mandy-Suzanne Wong’s startling novel is literature for our times.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Accolades_2_Auth":"Sofia Samatar, author of The White Mosque and Tender","OtherText_Accolades_3":"\u003cp\u003eWong's limpid, precise prose has a nineteenth century vibe, while her focus, an inanimate object, could not be more contemporary. Riveting and elegant, \u003cem\u003eThe Box\u003c\/em\u003e brings to mind Kazuo Ishiguro at his most enigmatic.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Accolades_3_Auth":"Daisy Rockwell, author of Taste, translator of Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree","OtherText_Back_cover_copy_0":"\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003eExplores themes of: mysterious forces; social collapse; climate change; the unreliability of memory; disconnection and loss.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFor fans of the Netflix series’ \u003cem\u003eBlack Mirror\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eKaleidoscope\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAdvance praise: “\u003cem\u003eThe Box\u003c\/em\u003e is an extraordinary novel, gamesome and philosophical. Not since Borges have, I experienced fiction as a perfect maze or puzzle, endlessly pleasing. The reader enters it, fascinated, just as s\/he goes out into the snow, which is always falling. Mandy-Suzanne Wong is a writer to watch.” — Amina Cain, author of \u003cem\u003eA Horse at Night\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eIndelicacy\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","OtherText_Review_0":"\u003cp\u003eDelivers something rare, evoking a creepy sort of glamour around books and stories, as if craving a good read is itself sometimes a form of dark desire.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Review_0_Src":"Kirkus","OtherText_Review_1":"\u003cp\u003eA feast of knotty sentences … Fans of experimental fiction ought to check this out.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Review_1_Src":"Publishers Weekly","OtherText_Review_2":"\u003cp\u003eWong displays formidable skill … drawing us into the highly wrought maze of her novel and making it fun.\u003c\/p\u003e","OtherText_Review_2_Src":"New York Times","OtherText_ShortDescription_0":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA stylistically dazzling dystopian novel about things, people, and the forces and seams between them.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","ProductFormDescription":"trade paperback","PublicationDate":"2023-09-19","Publisher":"House of Anansi Press Inc","ShortDescription":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA stylistically dazzling dystopian novel about things, people, and the forces and seams between them.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","Subtitle":"A Novel","Width":"5.5","WidthCode":"in"}