What do you think?
Rate this book
Our Colony Beyond the City of Ruins
Fiction. In OUR COLONY BEYOND THE CITY OF RUINS, an insomniac will do anything for sleep, crones released from a buried heart take over a town, a woman chooses to live her last days in a cave overlooking the sea, earthquake survivors establish a colony in a remote forest. With unwavering imagination and heart, Janalyn Guo delivers a cast of characters who find their own unusual ways to endure.
"These stories take the gestures of new wave fabulism and make it newer and even more wavy, by being genuinely international. Here's a book that shivers with possibility and wonder and surprise, where plants grow from people's bodies, where ghosts exist even before someone is dead. Guo isn't afraid to take on even the thoroughly weird in the most delightful way. This is what it's like to see a genre revivified."--Brian Evenson
"OUR COLONY BEYOND THE CITY OF RUINS is an absolute delight, a wild collection that unsettles as much as it entertains. Guo shows an impressive range and deep emotional intelligence--this is a rare book of both strangeness and heart."--Kelly Luce
"These stories take the gestures of new wave fabulism and make it newer and even more wavy, by being genuinely international. Here's a book that shivers with possibility and wonder and surprise, where plants grow from people's bodies, where ghosts exist even before someone is dead. Guo isn't afraid to take on even the thoroughly weird in the most delightful way. This is what it's like to see a genre revivified."--Brian Evenson
"OUR COLONY BEYOND THE CITY OF RUINS is an absolute delight, a wild collection that unsettles as much as it entertains. Guo shows an impressive range and deep emotional intelligence--this is a rare book of both strangeness and heart."--Kelly Luce
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
144 pages, Paperback
Published November 15, 2018
2 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 17, 2019
These short stories are all astonishing and dreamy. Each one feels so important and powerful, and I know I'll be re-reading this book over and over in the future. The language and imagery is so beautiful, and each of the worlds built are fully realized in such a small space. It's magic.
The only drawback for me is that some of the stories are so dreamlike it was easy for me to set them down after even a paragraph or a page, which is why it took me so long to get through the book. But I do love the dreaminess. This is a winner.
The only drawback for me is that some of the stories are so dreamlike it was easy for me to set them down after even a paragraph or a page, which is why it took me so long to get through the book. But I do love the dreaminess. This is a winner.
March 28, 2025
Stunning collection.
Quotes:
“I am not interested in relationships anymore but in the feelings that pictures and fantasies elicit in me when i am alone”
“It is impossible to see the levitators in this terrible weather.” - does such a wonderful job of introducing radically weird ideas in such simple ways
Quotes:
“I am not interested in relationships anymore but in the feelings that pictures and fantasies elicit in me when i am alone”
“It is impossible to see the levitators in this terrible weather.” - does such a wonderful job of introducing radically weird ideas in such simple ways
May 12, 2019
The magical realism works very well with plants. The first story bloom is the most remarkable one.
July 28, 2020
I adore this book and Guo’s writing. One of the best surrealist books there is.
June 6, 2024
engaged w/ here (w/ an eye toward reissuing): https://5cense.com/24/1154.htm
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews