io9 is pleased to declare that Erewhon Books has acquire Womb City , the fresh unveiling of Lambda finalist and Nommo Award - winnerTlotlo Tsamaase , who use both xe / xem and she / her pronouns . Tsamaase is a Motswana writer currently living in Botswana . Xer novella , The Silence of the Wilting Skin , garnered a monolithic amount of decisive acclamation .
Erewhon Books is truly the littlepublisher that could . An sovereign , modest - person team , it has publish some incredibleauthors and bookssince it started print in 2020 . It came out of the gate swing with C.L. Polk ’s The Midnight Bargain , which directly collect nominations across the diligence , andScapegracers , a YA that terminate up on the indie bestsellers list .
Womb City is draw as “ a feminist repugnance novel set in a futurist Botswana where citizens ’ cognisance can be plant into uncommitted , microchipped body , in which a woman commits a despairing murder to save herself and her unborn kid . She must forbid the dupe ’s revengeful ghost from stamp out everyone she loves even as she must outrun a sleepless government activity that would sacrifice her to preserve the secrets she ’s unwittingly unearth . ”
Image:Erewhon Books
Check out our interview with the author and Womb City ’s editor program , Sarah Guan , below .
Linda Codega , io9 : There ’s a complex family relationship in this account book between the power of technology and the ability of the human body . Do you feel like these two things are in competition or in conversation ?
Tlotlo Tsamaase , source : With most of my writing , I ’m interested in search how the tycoon of applied science intersects with the power of the human body , particularly in sure setting : a kinship , a corporation , or the government . It is fascinating to observe at both macro and micro levels how people ’s motivation , avarice , and desires manipulate and abuse technology . The plot of Womb City comes from wondering what the future tense might hold by generalise our current reality ’s issues into an ripe creation , examining it through the lenses of sexuality identity , crime , toxic element of cultivation , etc .
I ca n’t pinpoint the source of that interest , but when it comes to woman ’s bodies it ’s always a video display of superpower to own them in one room or another — and a corrupt motivation to bound their self-reliance , whether through culture or political science — which to me always feels very red . The tycoon of technology can be used for adept — it fetch convenience to our lives , grant people from dissimilar component part of the world to interact , etc.—so I reckon technology and the human body can both be in competition and in conversation with each other .
Sarah Guan , editor program : What ’s captivating about this dichotomy is that Womb City feature both the competition and the conversation , and affect effortlessly between the two . It ’s not quite as unproblematic as “ engineering is bad , the human physical structure is good”—a conservative narrative that we see repeat often in science fiction . Nor is it a straightforward tale of how “ technology is the solvent to all problems , save for the evils of human nature”—another thesis usual to our music genre .
In Womb City , technology is a potent tool that can be used for bully good or slap-up iniquity , in service of some humans and not others , look on the script that manage it . For instance , generative technology augments human capableness and opens up hanker - for possibilities for families like Nelah ’s , but patriarchal power construction within her order have in mind that not only is access to this tool restricted to those who conform to the goals of the state , but the tool itself is used as a means of compulsion and social engineering . This moral complexity is one of the many intellection - provoking prospect of the al-Qur’an !
io9 : What do you guess an extended human life does for the variety of societal expectation and familial expectations that people , and especially womanhood , are subjugate to ?
Tsamaase : Women currently face a passel of air pressure and brand within a category mise en scene and in beau monde , particularly when they do n’t conform to their traditional sex function . So , I believe that extended human life would increase this insistency on women , that women would be expected to conform to new expectations . Such order would practice scientific advancements that promote childbearing to patrol procreative right , potentially resulting in the following : worsen a unattackable requirement for cleaning lady to increase their rankness rates since they now know longer ; and adversely impacting transgender and nonbinary mass ’ lived experiences , rightfulness , and reproductive decisiveness - making agency .
Guan : One of the more horrifying points Womb City makes is that stretch forth human life story does n’t just afford people the luxury of more time , it also magnifies the existing arithmetic mean and inequities within an unfair society . The stake are high for everyone involved , because people dwell with the consequence of their — and others’—actions for much , much longer . Also , due to one of the master mechanism of protracted sprightliness in this story , those essence are well visited upon more the great unwashed , as person move through multiple bodies and the communities link with those dead body . Reproduction is n’t just regulated within citizen ’ own family construction ; the government is invested ( and meddles ) in its people ’s birth rate as it bear upon multiple families over many decade , if not centuries .
io9 : How does the circumstance of Botswana itself impact Womb City ?
Tsamaase : I ’ve never see theatrical performance of my home commonwealth in English language SFF , so I ’ve always have it in my shorter form works . I was drawn to Botswana ’s historical and scenic configurations that resonated with the themes of Womb City , so I ready certain authoritative scenes in the Holy Writ in places I ’ve visited , which provide a productive backcloth of mythology and history .
For example , I have pictorial memories of visiting the Matsieng Footprints , a cultural land site just turn up outside Botswana ’s capital city , Gaborone . The Matsieng Footprints was a fitting place for a big reveal of a generations - long dreary secret that the protagonist encounters in the Word of God , since Matsieng address with folklore and world of people . It ’s also surrounded by watering hole , which trifle a pivotal role in Womb City .
Guan : When I first take Womb City , I was struck by its simultaneous catholicity and specificity . The broad premise seems like one that could be translated into any culture or setting without losing its emotional and intellectual core — I’d expect it to appall readers everywhere — but Tlotlo ’s use of Botswana ’s folklore and geography add entirely raw layer of import to the story . Its exploration of key themes of the interconnectedness of life , community , and the providential feel unique to its stage setting , which provides a unique perspective and contributes to the dialog around these theme within and beyond speculative fable .
io9 : What books , film , or even video game do you think would be ripe comparisons ?
Tsamaase : I ’m a huge film overzealous , especially strange language plastic film , so I wrote this book as an ode to thriller and psychological suspense flick and books . In the query letter that got me my agent , I pitch Womb City as Black Mirror meets the feminism of Revenge , a Gallic moving-picture show , lock with the horror of Blood Cruise by Mats Strandberg . A friend also point out that it prompt them of Altered Carbon .
Guan : I ’d recommend Womb City to anyone who make out or is moved by The Handmaid ’s Tale — either the Quran or the television series . I ’d also compare it to Severance by Ling Ma , Who fear Death by Nnedi Okorafor , and Red Clocks by Leni Zumas .
io9 : What is this ledger saying about femininity and furiousness ? What is it explore about institutional furiousness ?
Tlotlo : Gender - based violence continues to be a pandemic that impact both woman and nonbinary people , and falling into the latter sex identity offer up no granting immunity from this violence . It ’s pervasive and so-so to human right hand . I require to explore this dynamic in various ways : in a romantic relationship , a work environment , a family scene , and to boot how this system can be enforced by women , too . Everything about sexuality nonconforming people ’s and adult female ’s personae is police , and if they truly respond with anger or refusal to adhere to oppression , it results in ferocity against them . I wondered how far that would go with the power of technology .
So , in Womb City , I was penetrative on investigating a scenario where the regime installs surveillance technology in distaff bodies , how it would be used to control conduct and bound self-sufficiency under the back of curtailing offence rate , and to what distance both parties — the suppress and the oppressor — would go to attain their motives . I wanted to research the issue this would have on the case ’ identity element .
When I was writing this novel , I learned that in Botswana , every three hours a woman was raped ; for a small nation with a universe of just two million , Botswana order shockingly high in rape statistic in the worldwide . criminal offense against women and non - binary people seem to be the reality — and bump even in good places . I wanted to explore these issues in the female fibre of Womb City , by allowing their miscellaneous expression of anger and use of furiousness against injustice or sexism .
Guan : muliebrity and wildness are often seen as antagonistic ; cultures around the macrocosm consider violence a masculine pursuit , which men , and those entities coded masculine , visit upon each other and upon adult female and femmes . Violent cleaning lady who defend their own interest ( as fight down to altruistically protecting others , such as shaver ) are slang as abnormal , insane , or deliberately and dangerously transgressive .
Only of late have we seen in mainstream cultivation even - handed depictions of distaff violence , or sympathetic portrayals of female violence in response to a misogynistic sociopolitical environment . Institutions too often condone or compel violence at scale against anyone with a uterus , as has been painfully clear in the United States these past weeks .
Womb City brings all of this cultural baggage to a astute stop , as Nelah — in many esteem a “ normal ” fair sex last in a stiflingly sexist society — commits a self - serving act of violence that is not easy justifiable . Men commit similar bit of force against women all the time for even slimmer reason , as Tlotlo notes , with such regularity that their victims are mere ugly statistic , but Nelah ’s offence seems particularly grotesque because we are unused to seeing char act with the same selfishness . Womb City enquire us to baby-sit with and interrogate the misogynistic context of our irritation .
io9 : Do you have any specific subgenres you would employ to describe Womb City ?
Tsamaase : When I publish the novel , it was meant to follow the template of a domestic thriller , but the story took on a lifespan of its own . During that prison term I ground myself playing with the following musical style : deadening - burn skill fable , horror , and speculative fabrication .
Guan : I by all odds hold with all of those writing style label , and would impart Womb City also contains elements of dystopian fiction and criminal offence fiction . However , one of the most intellectually satisfying aspects of the account book is the mode it subverts and defies established categorization !
io9 : Tlotlo , will we see some kind of trans tale or comment in this book ?
Tlotlo : Yes , and the intention of the sexuality exploration in the narrative vary across each of my body of work . In writing this particular book , I was research and deconstruct the poisonous and pernicious binary system that the friend and others direct whilst exploring my own gender identity . I do see the master graphic symbol ’s arc acquire out of that binary organisation ( and I ca n’t say much more as it would be a mollycoddler ) .
io9 : Sarah , what grabbed you about this book ?
Guan : There were a number of element that I was immediately captivated by : one was the all innovative way Tlotlo uses the well - trodden trope of body - swapping and uploading human consciousness to make scarily relevant points about bodily self-reliance , surveillance , and biotic community ties . Another was how the al-Qur’an plays with moral ambiguity , asking referee to librate less and greater wickedness against each other , specially in a example where the price of survival in an unjust system might mean get blood on one ’s hands . I ’m thrilled to be able to help Tlotlo hone and compound these uncomfortable but necessary question through the editorial process . I reckon Womb City gives readers plenty to call up ( and reason ) about , which is the goal of all great inquisitive fiction !
Womb City will be published in springiness 2023 .
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Linda CodegaNnedi OkoraforSci - Fi
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