What do you think?
Rate this book
Vehicle
Hester Heller is a traitor.
Hester Heller is a translator.
A muse. A musiker.
Hester Heller is inscrutable, even to herself.
In a time when looking into the past has become a socially unacceptable and illegal act in the Nation, a group of scholars are offered an attractive residency to allow them to pursue their projects. When the residency transpires to be a devastating trick, these Researchers go on the run, and soon discover that their projects all relate to one major the Isletese Disaster – the decline and subsequent devastation fifty years earlier of a long-forgotten roaming archipelago called The Islets.
One figure emerges as central to all of their Hester Heller, a reformed cult musiker turned student recruited from the Institute for Transmission as an agent of the state and tasked with gathering reconnaissance on the Disaster by using her old band Vehicle as a cover. Heller is the key to the Researchers collective story, which they try to piece together while evading their pursuers.
Compiled from the Researchers’ disparate documentation, recollections, and even their imaginations, Vehicle is a timely and daring exploration of xenophobia, exploitation, the writing of histories and legacies, and the politics of translation.
Hester Heller is a translator.
A muse. A musiker.
Hester Heller is inscrutable, even to herself.
In a time when looking into the past has become a socially unacceptable and illegal act in the Nation, a group of scholars are offered an attractive residency to allow them to pursue their projects. When the residency transpires to be a devastating trick, these Researchers go on the run, and soon discover that their projects all relate to one major the Isletese Disaster – the decline and subsequent devastation fifty years earlier of a long-forgotten roaming archipelago called The Islets.
One figure emerges as central to all of their Hester Heller, a reformed cult musiker turned student recruited from the Institute for Transmission as an agent of the state and tasked with gathering reconnaissance on the Disaster by using her old band Vehicle as a cover. Heller is the key to the Researchers collective story, which they try to piece together while evading their pursuers.
Compiled from the Researchers’ disparate documentation, recollections, and even their imaginations, Vehicle is a timely and daring exploration of xenophobia, exploitation, the writing of histories and legacies, and the politics of translation.
331 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 8, 2023
14 people are currently reading
653 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 - 30 of 41 reviews
September 13, 2023
Vehicle is a fascinating book from Jen Calleja and Prototype Publishing, styled as a "verse novel" that stretches the bounds of what a fiction can do. The story is centered on a group of researchers in exile, working under duress as they piece together a meaningful narrative of the Islets, a fictional archipelago whose history is contested. The story becomes focused on Hester, a translator, who re-translates artifacts her father had translated decades earlier. By exploring the politics of translation, we see the centrality of politics to any interpretation, or indeed to any narrative making. Formally, Calleja shifts between prose, verse, and transcript, which keeps it interesting. This is a book full of ideas, an exciting work that reveals more complexity with each layer.
August 2, 2025
WHEN HESTER AND FRAIVERU WON THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR THE NOVEL GRIPS, HESTER WAS ASKED TO GIVE A LIST OF HER FAVOURITE ISLETESE WORDS TO A MAGAZINE, THE ONLY BIT OF PRESS SHE GAVE, YURI SAYS, ASKING ARMANDAR TO GIVE THE DEFINITIONS:
Zo zod r’lop: when you find a satisfying translation of a word or term
Vehicle by Jen Calleja, billed as a verse novel, is a fascinating piece of literary speculative fiction, innovative in form, and exploring issues of national identity, the legacies of colonialism, xenophobic attitudes to refugees, gender roles, and the political nature of both music and translation, wrapped up in a compelling read.
It's published by Prototype Press:
The author, Jen Calleja is also a prize-shortlisted translator, the co-founding editor of Praspar Press, an independent publisher of Maltese literature, and drummer/vocalist in a collection of DIY punk bands including Sauna Youth.
And the heroine around which the novel centres, almost hagiographically, is Hester Heller, also a translator, a Musiker singer, half National and half Isletese (although the latter is something she takes time to discover), and a trained spy and seductress, using her touring career as a way to circumvent otherwise tightly controlled borders:
The Chair: What exactly does a band consist of and why would they tour? Wouldn’t it draw attention to you?
HH: A band is a group of narcissists playing music together. A tour is basically a vehicle for them to travel the world without necessarily engaging with other cultures and enjoying the benefit of receiving special treatment for apparently no reason other than working for about twenty minutes a night … We would be basically invisible by being in plain sight. Bands travel for a living. I’ve been waved through borders when they see guitars in the van. I’ve crossed borders by giving a free signed record after losing my passport. Bands usually travel unimpeded and beyond the usual rule of law for other citizens anyway, but the artist visa will be necessary just in case.
To explain some terms there, the set-up of the novel has the Nation, a country whose language is relatively universal, but which in 1993 underwent The Bordering, breaking away from the Mainland, a collection of unified countries - the analogy to the UK and Brexit clear. The Islets are rather more speculative-fiction in nature, a stand-in for colonial islands the world over and their relation to the colonial country, and Malta in particular. The Islets do not have a fixed location in the world but rather move around:
THE ISLETS: A roving clutch of small islands of no fixed location. One of the Three Soughtafters: rare and prized locations that offer advantages – legend has it that should a world power attain all three simultaneously, they would hold ultimate sway, though the other two are deserted and in ruin. Official language: Isletese, and dialects thereof. The Isletese language is thought to be a Scandi-German dialect of a Greek-Arabic dialect, formed over hundreds of years of settler contact, with each Islet speaking contemporary Isletese majeure alongside a range of other languages and hybrid tongues. The Islets are comprised of numerous small islands of diverse appearance and climate.
DUTCH EILANDJE: Red brick smokeries are scattered around this Islet. One whole village on the Islet bakes a special kind of stroopwafel or syrup waffle that was once shipped over for the enjoyment of the elite classes in the Netherlands.
ISLET ITALIA: A group of six families lives on this island. The Isletese and Italian cuisine have fused, so you might find a lasagne layered with fettle weed, or gnocchi made from the large, knobbly wixke variety of potato. The families (the Amissos, the Bêts, the Creefis, the Duuqs, the Eiolis, the Fiws) have all lived here both harmoniously and unharmoniously for many years.
...
In 1959 the Islets invoked The Banishment, expelling all foreigners, and breaking away, literally, from the rest of the world. But since the 1970s, the Islets have been in economic and physical distress reaching a crisis in 2000, with the Isletese Disaster, when the Islets start, in some cases, to sink, and they reach out to their former trade partners for assistance. This from a briefing given to the Nation's security forces:
A few days ago, various individuals entered parliamentary and governmental buildings here in the Nation, countries on the Mainland and the Main Land. Their joint task was to deliver a letter from the Isletese people to various heads of state. We have received these letters many times before, thought them false, fakes, begging letters. This time a man was shot on sight when he entered parliament trying to reach the Prime Minister, which, as you know, caused a kerfuffle. It has now forced our hand. The Islets, a sprawling, wandering archipelago, once a well-used trading partner and outpost, lively spot of happenings, and holiday destination for the intelligentsia, artists and the privileged few, have for some years been in a covert state of banishment, having pulled back from the world stage in favour of a cloaked and isolated existence for a ‘period of healing’, in their words from that time, after over-using their resources, burning out, being no longer sustainable. Against all advice they vanished. At their request they were removed from public consciousness here. You won’t find them on any accessible map, nor within the pages of history. You cannot get to them by any easy means. To the average citizen, they simply do not exist, as most of you can attest. But now, the Isletese – around 550,000 men, women and children – have decided to vacate the islands. They’re reaching out to former trade partners, demanding resettlement.
Given the Nation's own isolation from the rest of the Mainland, Hester Heller, student at the Institute of Transmission, is sent to the Mainland, with the cover story of reforming her Musiker band Vehicle for a musical tour:
It was the loudest thing I’d ever heard; you didn’t listen to it, you fell into it. It picked you up and threw you; it was like feeling the sun in my face, like standing in the rain. They were making this sound, it was coming from their hands, their mouths, amplified, made huge, like a wizard stoking up a curse, like a mad scientist’s machine, but they were mortal, it was them sweating, the exertion, the despair, the joy. They wore skin-tight black clothes, studs on their shoulders and belts, they reminded me of superheroes I’d seen in Bobby’s comic books, like in cartoons, instead of the zing of unsheathed swords crossing and primal roars and causing avalanches with telepathy, it was the screech of wielded guitars and mesmerising wails and beating a drum kit into submission and everyone staring transfixed.
But Hester's assigned mission is to discover what the Mainlanders think about the Islets request for aslyum, and whether indeed their distress is real. And in practice, Hester has questions of her own about her identity and her own affiliation with the Islets.
The novel itself is narrated looking back from 2050. A group of students at the Central Library in the Nation have been researching the events before and after 2020, and the legacy of Hester Heller in particular, searching the archives for any historical documents. But it becomes clear that the authorities actually want them to find the information so it can be destroyed and the group goes on the run, telling each other the story in fragmentary scraps from the few documents they were able to save and from their own memories.
And if the above makes this sound rather serious political speculative fiction actually a lot of the story focuses on the rather scuzzy realities of life in a touring band.
Dalle-E's impression of a band from the era wearing the blue aprons (read the book to find out why) of the Musiker scene:
As mentioned, literary translation plays a key underlying role, including retranslations of a Isletese Diary of a Refugee by Hester, originally translated by her father, and the role of some mainland translators who have more appropriated than translated Isletese poems. As per ChatGPT "literary translation is inherently political because it mediates between cultures, influencing perceptions and shaping understanding. It serves as a bridge, allowing voices from one context to be heard in another. This act of interpretation is imbued with power dynamics, as translators make choices that reflect their own biases, beliefs, and sociopolitical contexts. What gets translated, and how, can reinforce or challenge existing power structures."
Xi’o forl t’bio: the bond between an author and their translator.
The author discusses the novel here, rather wonderfully done in the style of the novel itself.
Highly recommended - 4.5 stars.
Zo zod r’lop: when you find a satisfying translation of a word or term
Vehicle by Jen Calleja, billed as a verse novel, is a fascinating piece of literary speculative fiction, innovative in form, and exploring issues of national identity, the legacies of colonialism, xenophobic attitudes to refugees, gender roles, and the political nature of both music and translation, wrapped up in a compelling read.
It's published by Prototype Press:
Founded in 2019 by Jess Chandler, Prototype is a publisher of fiction, poetry, anthologies and interdisciplinary projects. With an emphasis on producing unique and beautiful books, we are committed to championing the work of new voices in free-form contemporary literature.
Prototype is committed to creating new possibilities in the publishing of fiction and poetry through a flexible, interdisciplinary approach. Each publication is unique in its form and presentation, and the aesthetic of each object is considered critical to its production.
Through the discovery of high quality work across genres, Prototype strives to increase audiences for experimental writing, as the home for writers and artists whose work requires a creative vision not offered by mainstream literary publishers.
The author, Jen Calleja is also a prize-shortlisted translator, the co-founding editor of Praspar Press, an independent publisher of Maltese literature, and drummer/vocalist in a collection of DIY punk bands including Sauna Youth.
And the heroine around which the novel centres, almost hagiographically, is Hester Heller, also a translator, a Musiker singer, half National and half Isletese (although the latter is something she takes time to discover), and a trained spy and seductress, using her touring career as a way to circumvent otherwise tightly controlled borders:
The Chair: What exactly does a band consist of and why would they tour? Wouldn’t it draw attention to you?
HH: A band is a group of narcissists playing music together. A tour is basically a vehicle for them to travel the world without necessarily engaging with other cultures and enjoying the benefit of receiving special treatment for apparently no reason other than working for about twenty minutes a night … We would be basically invisible by being in plain sight. Bands travel for a living. I’ve been waved through borders when they see guitars in the van. I’ve crossed borders by giving a free signed record after losing my passport. Bands usually travel unimpeded and beyond the usual rule of law for other citizens anyway, but the artist visa will be necessary just in case.
To explain some terms there, the set-up of the novel has the Nation, a country whose language is relatively universal, but which in 1993 underwent The Bordering, breaking away from the Mainland, a collection of unified countries - the analogy to the UK and Brexit clear. The Islets are rather more speculative-fiction in nature, a stand-in for colonial islands the world over and their relation to the colonial country, and Malta in particular. The Islets do not have a fixed location in the world but rather move around:
THE ISLETS: A roving clutch of small islands of no fixed location. One of the Three Soughtafters: rare and prized locations that offer advantages – legend has it that should a world power attain all three simultaneously, they would hold ultimate sway, though the other two are deserted and in ruin. Official language: Isletese, and dialects thereof. The Isletese language is thought to be a Scandi-German dialect of a Greek-Arabic dialect, formed over hundreds of years of settler contact, with each Islet speaking contemporary Isletese majeure alongside a range of other languages and hybrid tongues. The Islets are comprised of numerous small islands of diverse appearance and climate.
DUTCH EILANDJE: Red brick smokeries are scattered around this Islet. One whole village on the Islet bakes a special kind of stroopwafel or syrup waffle that was once shipped over for the enjoyment of the elite classes in the Netherlands.
ISLET ITALIA: A group of six families lives on this island. The Isletese and Italian cuisine have fused, so you might find a lasagne layered with fettle weed, or gnocchi made from the large, knobbly wixke variety of potato. The families (the Amissos, the Bêts, the Creefis, the Duuqs, the Eiolis, the Fiws) have all lived here both harmoniously and unharmoniously for many years.
...
In 1959 the Islets invoked The Banishment, expelling all foreigners, and breaking away, literally, from the rest of the world. But since the 1970s, the Islets have been in economic and physical distress reaching a crisis in 2000, with the Isletese Disaster, when the Islets start, in some cases, to sink, and they reach out to their former trade partners for assistance. This from a briefing given to the Nation's security forces:
A few days ago, various individuals entered parliamentary and governmental buildings here in the Nation, countries on the Mainland and the Main Land. Their joint task was to deliver a letter from the Isletese people to various heads of state. We have received these letters many times before, thought them false, fakes, begging letters. This time a man was shot on sight when he entered parliament trying to reach the Prime Minister, which, as you know, caused a kerfuffle. It has now forced our hand. The Islets, a sprawling, wandering archipelago, once a well-used trading partner and outpost, lively spot of happenings, and holiday destination for the intelligentsia, artists and the privileged few, have for some years been in a covert state of banishment, having pulled back from the world stage in favour of a cloaked and isolated existence for a ‘period of healing’, in their words from that time, after over-using their resources, burning out, being no longer sustainable. Against all advice they vanished. At their request they were removed from public consciousness here. You won’t find them on any accessible map, nor within the pages of history. You cannot get to them by any easy means. To the average citizen, they simply do not exist, as most of you can attest. But now, the Isletese – around 550,000 men, women and children – have decided to vacate the islands. They’re reaching out to former trade partners, demanding resettlement.
Given the Nation's own isolation from the rest of the Mainland, Hester Heller, student at the Institute of Transmission, is sent to the Mainland, with the cover story of reforming her Musiker band Vehicle for a musical tour:
It was the loudest thing I’d ever heard; you didn’t listen to it, you fell into it. It picked you up and threw you; it was like feeling the sun in my face, like standing in the rain. They were making this sound, it was coming from their hands, their mouths, amplified, made huge, like a wizard stoking up a curse, like a mad scientist’s machine, but they were mortal, it was them sweating, the exertion, the despair, the joy. They wore skin-tight black clothes, studs on their shoulders and belts, they reminded me of superheroes I’d seen in Bobby’s comic books, like in cartoons, instead of the zing of unsheathed swords crossing and primal roars and causing avalanches with telepathy, it was the screech of wielded guitars and mesmerising wails and beating a drum kit into submission and everyone staring transfixed.
But Hester's assigned mission is to discover what the Mainlanders think about the Islets request for aslyum, and whether indeed their distress is real. And in practice, Hester has questions of her own about her identity and her own affiliation with the Islets.
The novel itself is narrated looking back from 2050. A group of students at the Central Library in the Nation have been researching the events before and after 2020, and the legacy of Hester Heller in particular, searching the archives for any historical documents. But it becomes clear that the authorities actually want them to find the information so it can be destroyed and the group goes on the run, telling each other the story in fragmentary scraps from the few documents they were able to save and from their own memories.
And if the above makes this sound rather serious political speculative fiction actually a lot of the story focuses on the rather scuzzy realities of life in a touring band.
Dalle-E's impression of a band from the era wearing the blue aprons (read the book to find out why) of the Musiker scene:
As mentioned, literary translation plays a key underlying role, including retranslations of a Isletese Diary of a Refugee by Hester, originally translated by her father, and the role of some mainland translators who have more appropriated than translated Isletese poems. As per ChatGPT "literary translation is inherently political because it mediates between cultures, influencing perceptions and shaping understanding. It serves as a bridge, allowing voices from one context to be heard in another. This act of interpretation is imbued with power dynamics, as translators make choices that reflect their own biases, beliefs, and sociopolitical contexts. What gets translated, and how, can reinforce or challenge existing power structures."
Xi’o forl t’bio: the bond between an author and their translator.
The author discusses the novel here, rather wonderfully done in the style of the novel itself.
Highly recommended - 4.5 stars.
July 31, 2023
Playful and simultaneously very rigorous in critique of relations between power and knowledge as these relate to the "subalterns". It got bogged down with "musik" details for me, but I'm fascinated by the amount of work it took to produce consistent world such as this one.
April 2, 2024
england flag england flag england flag england flag
can you believe that was four years ago. my entire body has nearly changed at the molecular level, also i have chest hair a little bit now too. it’s not much and seems to be over my left side a bit more but it’s coming along. you got to grow down to grow up but i’m growing out !
i'm listening to the beatles. it's raining.
can you believe that was four years ago. my entire body has nearly changed at the molecular level, also i have chest hair a little bit now too. it’s not much and seems to be over my left side a bit more but it’s coming along. you got to grow down to grow up but i’m growing out !
i'm listening to the beatles. it's raining.
January 12, 2024
wild man. never read anything in this prose verse style before but really enjoyed it. gripped me a lot and by the end I was so eager to get to the concluding pages.
March 26, 2023
The at first confusing net spun by the many formats and jumps in the timeline makes for an extremely satisfying reading experience when you begin to see through it, gripping, a wide array of fascinating characters, funny, biting, a must read for translators and everyone else really
(Gods i want to slap Boy)
(Gods i want to slap Boy)
July 28, 2023
incredible. such a refreshing take on the novel, wonderfully crafted and fascinating to read, in content and form.
March 1, 2024
2.5 / 5. The general storyline is interesting and includes themes playing out in today's world (think xenophobia, racism, environmental issues, colonialism). However, the text was confusing and I felt lost quite a lot of the time. I needed to refer to the list of characters frequently enough for it to get annoying. Zero connection to Hester Heller or the other characters who were all underdeveloped. Overall, a read that felt like hard work/a slog, not enjoyable and made me feel as if the majority of the book went over my head.
June 14, 2023
Comes together from a jingling pocketful of shards to tell a story of music, migration, catastrophe, nationalism and subversion
January 22, 2025
Remember when we used to invent intellectual movements and schools of thought while learning social sciences or philosophy in university? This book elevates that to the level of a novel.
Jen Calleja uses speculative fiction (with a new weird twist!) and metanarrative to make us think about very real topics: colonialism, racism, sexism and the role of art and politics in all of that. Because academia is so present, it reminded me a lot of Pola Oloixarac books, although Calleja goes a lot further in what she criticizes.
The way the novel plays with languages, both from a theoretical and a practical perspective, is delicious and made me think of James Joyce, besides games like “Disco Elysium” or “Lorelei and the laser eyes”.
I highly recommend the book, especially for people interested in translation, languages, semiotics and art.
Jen Calleja uses speculative fiction (with a new weird twist!) and metanarrative to make us think about very real topics: colonialism, racism, sexism and the role of art and politics in all of that. Because academia is so present, it reminded me a lot of Pola Oloixarac books, although Calleja goes a lot further in what she criticizes.
The way the novel plays with languages, both from a theoretical and a practical perspective, is delicious and made me think of James Joyce, besides games like “Disco Elysium” or “Lorelei and the laser eyes”.
I highly recommend the book, especially for people interested in translation, languages, semiotics and art.
May 7, 2024
Contemporary political parallels and social commentary immersed in incredible and fantastical world building.
Hard to follow at times, kept having to refer back to the character list, and I think I needed a little more padding out of the Researchers’ storyline as I can’t quite wrap my head around it fully? Liked the scraps of research via prose, transcript and fragmented documentation - the vignettes of the researchers keep you wondering how much of the story is fact and how much is interpretation - history isn’t objective, etc etc. (that’s the entire point)
The author really said the UK is a xenophobic hellscape and she was so real for that
Fab book!!!!
Hard to follow at times, kept having to refer back to the character list, and I think I needed a little more padding out of the Researchers’ storyline as I can’t quite wrap my head around it fully? Liked the scraps of research via prose, transcript and fragmented documentation - the vignettes of the researchers keep you wondering how much of the story is fact and how much is interpretation - history isn’t objective, etc etc. (that’s the entire point)
The author really said the UK is a xenophobic hellscape and she was so real for that
Fab book!!!!
May 11, 2024
Although probably a story for our time I found this a rather repetitive read with an irritatingly disjointed style. A great argument for never being in a band though!
August 8, 2024
My, my, my! Every once in awhile I get a chance to read something that blows me away and this book by Jen Calleja certainly has done that. I LOVE this book. It's creative, interesting, funny, intelligent and the prose is so well polished it reads like butter. Vehicle is a patchwork of playful literary styles that works and reworks it's plot in dazzling passages until the reader, fully immersed, has their revelation. I'd call it a slow burn but there's is nothing slow about Calleja's writing. It is dynamic and generous and honestly just so fun to hang out with.
After Dutton's latest and now this book , prototype publishing has zoomed to the top of my favorite small presses. I'll be digging into their catalogue some more!
After Dutton's latest and now this book , prototype publishing has zoomed to the top of my favorite small presses. I'll be digging into their catalogue some more!
August 22, 2024
Proper stunning this one, some incredible worldbuilding. A great combination of punk tour diary, translation, imagined geography, espionage tale and interrogation of how utterly pathetic and racist Britain is. The collage approach works so well, really adds to the worldbuilding and sense of place, while also creating a tangled and horrible narrative. Pretty bleak first half, but stick with it! Maybe having a wild fever while reading it added to the headfuck but I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.
December 20, 2023
Inventive, playful yet extremely thought-provoking.
May 15, 2023
The back cover of Vehicle describes it as an "exploration of xenophobia, exploitation, the writing of histories and legacies, and the politics of translation" and having finished the book I don't think I'm able to give any more insight than that. There is a story, there are characters, but action is primarily a series of loosely-connected vignettes around a main character, Hester Heller, who is seemingly perfect, or, if she has a flaw, it is only that she refuses to carry out the ridiculous rituals and debasement of herself which would be required to progress her career or allow her to live a comfortable life. The vignettes are all about Hester or reactions to Hester. Hester translates the same texts her father did, putting his rosy portray of the refugees in a far colder and less sympathetic (to the host country) light. Hester is incredibly beautiful. Hester is incredibly smart. Hester is able to get people to open up to her in ways that nobody else can. Hester fully understands the conspiracy against her but courageously accepts it. Hester is a bastion of virtue in a corrupt world. Hester, to be frank, is, by the end, pretty annoying.
The book is structured as a prose poem, and some of the writing is beautiful. I will never forget the line "mating with you was like being covered in leeches", despite hoping that I'll never want to consider using it.
I found the book a little flabby, and not all of it came together for me, but I enjoyed it.
The book is structured as a prose poem, and some of the writing is beautiful. I will never forget the line "mating with you was like being covered in leeches", despite hoping that I'll never want to consider using it.
I found the book a little flabby, and not all of it came together for me, but I enjoyed it.
April 6, 2024
I'm still a little undecided about this.
It's a book about making narratives, taped together from fluctuating between illegal archivists on the run in the back of a van. These constructed political narratives include: patriotism, xenophobia, translation, sexism, suppression of art, and I think crucially and glossed over by many reviewers, abusive/coercive relationships.
These scraps coalesce into a complicated portrait of punk singer/translator Hester Heller, groomed from a young age to manipulate and extract information from folk. Hester becomes a spy, gathering information on the Islets, a fantastical stand-in for the colonised global majority, currently facing ecological collapse. However, Hester's motivation to complete the mission to the expectations of the institute commissioning her is already waning, as she comes to realise who she really is after a lifetime of abuse. Power is constantly asserted and undermined not just by the characters, but at the prose level: comparative translations, imagined conversations, disagreements on order of events...it gives a sense of the importance of fact and the subjective intertwined in toppling power structures.
I found some of its explorations of xenophobia and nationalism a little shallow and obvious in a FBPE way, though still valid. But I loved the descriptions of art's role in at once advocating for and appropriating peoples' struggles, and the through line of a mistrust of narration. If you want a book told by unreliable narrators as their sources disappear behind them, that creaks with sweat, grease, ink and seawater, this is the one for you.
It's a book about making narratives, taped together from fluctuating between illegal archivists on the run in the back of a van. These constructed political narratives include: patriotism, xenophobia, translation, sexism, suppression of art, and I think crucially and glossed over by many reviewers, abusive/coercive relationships.
These scraps coalesce into a complicated portrait of punk singer/translator Hester Heller, groomed from a young age to manipulate and extract information from folk. Hester becomes a spy, gathering information on the Islets, a fantastical stand-in for the colonised global majority, currently facing ecological collapse. However, Hester's motivation to complete the mission to the expectations of the institute commissioning her is already waning, as she comes to realise who she really is after a lifetime of abuse. Power is constantly asserted and undermined not just by the characters, but at the prose level: comparative translations, imagined conversations, disagreements on order of events...it gives a sense of the importance of fact and the subjective intertwined in toppling power structures.
I found some of its explorations of xenophobia and nationalism a little shallow and obvious in a FBPE way, though still valid. But I loved the descriptions of art's role in at once advocating for and appropriating peoples' struggles, and the through line of a mistrust of narration. If you want a book told by unreliable narrators as their sources disappear behind them, that creaks with sweat, grease, ink and seawater, this is the one for you.
January 13, 2025
“Do not look out to sea, do not look into the sky. Unless it is completely necessary, do not look out of the window.” Jen Calleja’s Vehicle — the second book she’s published in the last couple of weeks! — is is an extraordinary, experimental verse-novel about migration, nationhood and the political and ethical ramifications of the act and effects of translation, its vast potential. “I started translating the poem using the glossary provided. It was strange but straight away I knew part of it”; “You think I'm hiding something beyond what I say. It's all there, there is nothing here with any intention of being interpreted, my communication with you is superficial, not profound.” Set in an alternate world, focusing on the geopolitical situation between a reclusive archipelago known as The Islets and a strange, cynical, oppressive Nation. “From what we’ve seen of The Islets, […] there’s nothing we could possibly gain from such a primitive, insular, unlearned place.” A group of Researchers evade a trap while piecing together the past, in which a musician uses her band as a cover for her spy work, sanctioned and overseen by the Institute for Transmission. This is a world where “art” is a swear word, the past is verboten, and borders are sacrosanct. “Boarding up windows, burying our precious goods, packaging up our books. […] Everyone wants to live on an exotic island. Except when it is sinking into the sea.” This is a post-Brexit novel, maybe the most definitive one so far, that unfolds with a sense of intrigue and chaos, an experimental style beguiling then totally propulsive, ultimately verging on hopeful. “The notes inside read: *Help us. The Islets.*”
August 22, 2023
the reader turns into the researcher! clutching at pieces of dialogue and cross-referencing each transcript and each letter that jen calleja seems to drip feed with meaning. the political and cultural clash of these countries is commented on abundantly, making way for this discussion of social art versus propaganda, immigration, generational conflict and skill, especially utilised within government. the one thing I would’ve liked to see (perhaps risking my reputation as a big girl reader) were pictures. I appreciate that I was able to imagine most postcards and posters, but some things to break up the pace a little more. some musik references I skimmed over, not out of malice but apathy. especially when it was just boyd and hester’s heroic/stoic, and them just circling eachother in this weirdly destitute way. I liked the new world system but it also felt a little vague, like calleja had only really scraped the surface of the 2050s. or perhaps that was the intention. a bracing novel with striking and meaty verse.
July 15, 2025
hugely energetic vignette-buffet of crust punk and subversive academia, bounding like a puppy between tour diaries, political espionage, love letters, ethnography, verse, who the hell knows what else. it’s all very astute and very fun, and i’d recommend Jen Calleja’s debut to anyone even remotely interested, but in spite of appearing to be lab-grown for my specific consumption, it’s all a little too precious/twee. the capital-w Worldbuilding is really stale (instead of “fuck” they say “art”, man, isn’t that, like, so dystopian?) and all of the main characters - scrappy but erudite, tough but sensitive, magically good at everything - read more like the baudelaire orphans that people in a real book for adults. the poetry (of which, for a novel in verse, there isn’t much) is also not good. wonderful structural innovation, really really great ideas, just not the full package :((
October 17, 2025
vehicle is a verse novel that starts with the escape of a group of researchers. these scholars, all conducting research on the central character hester heller and the “isletese disaster”, began to shared their findings and through which you put the story together.
it was certainly an interesting experience to follow a story that was told through a mixture of poems, dialogues, and longer narratives. the forms added layer to the story: i really liked the way it built the image of the institute (the school that trains spy like hester) through its exam questions, for instance. the style gave the book a mystique, for example in keeping a lot of names from the real world but changing something minor like spelling to
create a fictitious place. all in all, although it was slightly confusing in the beginning, overall fairly well executed.
it is an attractive story: the romance and untamed youthfulness of touring in a band in the backdrop of something more sinister. a heroine against venomous hate institutionally cultivated towards immigrants, and manipulative and violent men. my slight critique is that, in focusing on the form of the story telling, it places some distance between the readers and the characters or the story so i felt like a third party observer throughout. still, it is an interesting way to experience a story.
it was certainly an interesting experience to follow a story that was told through a mixture of poems, dialogues, and longer narratives. the forms added layer to the story: i really liked the way it built the image of the institute (the school that trains spy like hester) through its exam questions, for instance. the style gave the book a mystique, for example in keeping a lot of names from the real world but changing something minor like spelling to
create a fictitious place. all in all, although it was slightly confusing in the beginning, overall fairly well executed.
it is an attractive story: the romance and untamed youthfulness of touring in a band in the backdrop of something more sinister. a heroine against venomous hate institutionally cultivated towards immigrants, and manipulative and violent men. my slight critique is that, in focusing on the form of the story telling, it places some distance between the readers and the characters or the story so i felt like a third party observer throughout. still, it is an interesting way to experience a story.
September 12, 2023
We saw the author speak at a book festival event called "Poetic Dystopian Futures" and found the concept intriguing. She avoided spoilers in her talk and so will I! This book surprised me, both with its unusual format on the page and in terms of its storytelling, not to mention the rolling waves of its plot. I was so deeply absorbed that I read the whole thing on a long weekend out of town for quite a busy vacation - i.e., the flights in both directions, and every evening in our hotel. The author's complex use of language reflects her own background as a poet, multilingual translator, writing teacher and musician. I'm still pondering the wider meaning of the story itself, but it's been very satisfying even with remaining questions. I would definitely recommend this book.
September 10, 2024
Fucking (arting) brilliant!
Scathing and beautiful writing. Does a brilliant job weaving together multiple timelines and different formats of writing. It takes a minute to get used to the writing but stick with it because it so worth it! I really enjoyed the way it touched on themes of xenophobia, colonialism, patriarchy/ misogyny —Calleja has this deeply sardonic, humorously dark way of voicing profound things with such flippancy — I am in awe. The themes and the story of the book can easily come across as depressing— and it is—but at same time I think it holds on to such radical hope. Loved it!!!!
I am not sure how one comes about writing such a complex piece of work but I am so glad I got to read it :)!
Scathing and beautiful writing. Does a brilliant job weaving together multiple timelines and different formats of writing. It takes a minute to get used to the writing but stick with it because it so worth it! I really enjoyed the way it touched on themes of xenophobia, colonialism, patriarchy/ misogyny —Calleja has this deeply sardonic, humorously dark way of voicing profound things with such flippancy — I am in awe. The themes and the story of the book can easily come across as depressing— and it is—but at same time I think it holds on to such radical hope. Loved it!!!!
I am not sure how one comes about writing such a complex piece of work but I am so glad I got to read it :)!
September 12, 2025
Inventive and thought-provoking in both form and content, Vehicle is my favorite book that I have read in a while. It is a fast read in the sense that the text grips you and moves you forward, but also there are many moments and vignettes that merit pausing and reading (or rereading) at a slower pace. Both humorous and serious, this book grapples with so many questions without being overburdened by them - the meaning and purpose of language and translation, the politics and social dynamics of nations and refugees, identity, music, and more. A book that feels timely but also, in my opinion, will stand the test of time.
October 3, 2025
Whooaaa! What just happened? Jen Calleja has an incredibly wild and unfettered imagination and has no fear of playing around with form. As a reader you just have to keep up! Set in 2050 when looking back is banned, Vehicle is a clever, and at times confusing, novel that jumps backwards and forwards in time, between nations and Islands, between narrators and languages and yet manages to piece together a story that raises so many issues. It's funny and serious and totally off the wall - quite a ride!
June 23, 2024
I could not get into this one. Halfway through the book, page 155, and I have decided to stop. This is not because of the quality of the writing or the book, which I'm sure would suit a reader interesting in an academia & band tour story blend. The scenes about the academic world had interesting anecdotes, but my interest waned when the story shifted to a band road trip drama. Not what I was looking to read.
May 14, 2025
This was a hard one at the start, but the core mystery of what happened to the Islets and the story of Hester Heller was compelling enough to keep me hooked throughout. So many topics are being tackled here that I am sure that I missed a lot of subtext. But honestly in a book published by "prototype" and from an author of poetry and short stories; this felt forgivable. Vehicle feels more like a writing experiment than a novel, albeit an extremely thought provoking and enjoyable one.
August 28, 2023
A unique, sharp and ambitious book that left me wanting more - more information, more history, more of the main character’s voice. And as someone living in the Nation, of course it was too close to home. One of the rare times where an unusual structure and changing format just makes the story feel more fluid and engrossing.
February 17, 2024
A brilliant book constructing a universe that is not ours yet is not so distant (I know it sounds cliché but sayingmore can ruin your own discovery of the novel). Reading it in early 2024, one cannot not think of the hardening of discourses on borders/identities/others; on the climate & colonialism refugees now and to come.
March 10, 2024
Vehicle by Jen Calleja is an experimental, speculative, genre-defying novel told in verse. Calleja has written a cerebral and riotous exploration of nationhood, fascism, borders and languages that is timely and timeless in an everchanging political world. This book is rooted in punk and is like nothing else I’ve read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews