Unspeakable Things

“Infused with the exoticism of poetry … Spivack concocts a glittering picture of many horrors, echoing the unspeakable things unfolding across the ocean, while managing to include some surprising, almost perverse tenderness.” –Mopsy Strange Kennedy, The Improper Bostonian
 
“Wildly imaginative … A stirring chronicle of survival … Heart-piercingly direct, ringing with poetry.” –Karen Campbell, Boston Globe
 
“Brilliant, vivid, entertaining, and often quite frightening … Kathleen Spivack’s poetic skills are evident in the precision and evocative language, her control of the tone—which is a harmony of darkness and wit—and her steadiness of focus on her characters.” –Claire Hopley, Washington Times
 
“Wild, erotic … daring, haunting, dark, and surreal … Unspeakable Things lives up to its title.” –The Millions (Most Anticipated Books of 2016)
 
“Beautiful language, unusual politeness, and a tendency toward daring literature … The language is this book reaches poetic heights … Unspeakable Things breaks new ground in the genre of magical realism … I adore Spivack’s literary skills … She is a not-to-be missed new star that shines and sighs on the literary horizon.” –Book Reviews and More
 
“Spivack’s illumination of her characters’ loss and fears, set against blaring, brash New York in grating contrast to shadowed, tyrannized Europe, are gorgeous and despairing in their precision, yet this is not a work of straightforward historical fiction. Instead, it is a macabre fairy tale of monstrous fascinations, horrific exploitations, and desperate strategies of survival … Amid gothic eroticism and chamber-of-horrors surrealism, Spivack considers the epic betrayal of the European dream that art, culture, and rationality can triumph over hate, malevolence, and terror.” –Donna Seaman, Booklist (Starred Review)