In My Country Is a Ghost, Niovi experiences this first-hand in a very real way when the ever-present ghost of her mother is taken from her at customs. When we are displaced from our home, that external reminder isn’t there any more. The people around us remind us of who we are: how we cook, what we value, the way we act. Too often, we take for granted the way our community reinforces our self of self and cultural identity. Eugenia Triantafyllou does this beautifully. One of the things I like best about speculative fiction is that it allows an author to use magic to physically represent an abstract concept. She took away Niovi’s necklace and left only her phone. Her lips were pressed in a tight line as she pointed at the ghost during the screening, tucked inside a necklace. “Are you carrying a ghost with you, ma’am?” asked the woman in the security vest. When Niovi tried to smuggle her mother’s ghost into the new country, she found herself being passed from one security officer to another, detailing her mother’s place and date of death over and over again. Read more reviews of Nebula Finalists here.
My Country Is a Ghost is a finalist in the 2021 Nebula Awards. This story is available online for free at: Uncanny Magazine – Click through to read! These stories will usually be available for free online, but occasionally stories from published anthologies will also be featured. Welcome to Short Fiction Friday! Every Friday, Black Forest Basilisks will be shining a spotlight on a new short story, novelette, or flash fic in addition to our regular posts.
0 kommentar(er)
