Mouthful of Birds is Samanta Schweblin (CRF 2011)’s second book to appear in English, after 2017’s phenomenal Fever Dream, which was also translated expertly by Megan McDowell.
In an interview with Rain Taxi , Schweblin said: “For me, even in the most subtle and introspective story, it’s all about tension: this is the thread that ties a reader to story, something in the rhythm and in the argument that hypnotizes and pushes us to read with great attention.” As in Fever Dream, Schweblin is able to wring dread out of almost every scenario in her stories, then increase the pressure with each sentence. If the story follows a pattern, that pattern escalates quickly and relentlessly. Many of the stories, like “The Test”—in which the narrator is taken by a man named only as “the Mole” to perform a gruesome test that will make every animal lover squirm—are terrifying thrillers told in a handful of pages.”
The twenty stories in “Mouthful of Birds” cover a range of subjects and situations. There is a particular focus on the link between violence and art. What does it mean to read about viewers celebrating violence as art in a collection filled with murder and mayhem? Schweblin seems content to let us feel implicated, and squirm in the ambiguity. Mouthful of Birds is like a drawer filled with strange, bizarre, and unsettling objects. If you are drawn to the dark and the weird, these are excellent stories to both make you think and keep you up at night.
Read the full article in BOOM here.