Rohan Ayinde

A very clever book, Erasure plays with form and creates a compelling multilayered narrative that grapples with race, family dynamics and artistic integrity amongst other things. It is a book that takes some time to sink into, but once you start to understand the playfulness of the narrative form and how it is replicated and mirrored by the various narrative voices that make up the book, it begins to unfold in a wandering and exploratory way. Anchored by a series of voices that can feel disconnected, their coherence is amplified as the story progresses, allowing you to feel somewhat like a detective peeling back the layers of a fairly opaque mystery. It's a masterful class in the art of writing, while simultaneously playing with (and perhaps mocking) the seriousness with which certain writing traditions hold themselves in high esteem relative to others. Indeed it's a reminder that any in-group creates an out-group and that being in and out of any determined community puts you no closer to understanding your self or the world if you are unable to regard the contours of that group with sufficient awareness of its flaws.