Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion

Dear Members,

Prepare to be transported.

Janice Margolis’s Termination Shocks is not merely a short-story collection, it is an invitation to step across the invisible boundaries of the everyday and into the extraordinary. These are stories that tremble with energy, charged with the uncanny sensation of standing at the edge of something vast, luminous, and completely transformative.

Critics are already taking notice. Sabina Murray, acclaimed author of Valiant Gentlemen, praises the book as “a singular collection from a truly skilled new voice in fiction,” noting how each story fractures reality into something strange yet hauntingly familiar. Rikki Ducornet calls it “vigorous and inspired… wildly unreeling, with cracks so wide a lion enters,” celebrating Margolis’s fearless imagination and unmatched narrative scope.

At the heart of this collection lies the concept of the termination shock, that cosmic threshold where the sun’s influence ends and a new frontier begins. Margolis draws on this celestial metaphor to reveal lives caught in seismic moments of change: lives abruptly altered, beautifully unraveling, or quietly reborn.

You’ll journey from WWII-era Egypt to modern-day Liberia, from a swiftly transforming Syria to an uncanny Los Angeles. You’ll meet a narrator quarantined after her mother’s death from Ebola, lovers navigating the shifting landscapes of culture and conflict, and even a Berlin Wall that speaks, confesses, and grieves.

Every story is a universe of its own, expansive, daring, and deeply human.

For book clubs seeking rich discussion, emotional depth, and powerful storytelling that lingers long after the last page, Termination Shocks is an unforgettable choice. Its layers invite reflection, its characters spark empathy, and its bold imagination begs to be talked about.

If your club is ready for a reading experience that crackles with insight, innovation, and heart, then this electrifying debut deserves a place at the top of your list.

Warm regards,
Clara James

Termination Shocks
Termination Shocks