February Book of the Month
What does it mean to have a ‘once in a lifetime’ love and still walk away from it? Lidija Hilje tackles this question in her debut novel Slanting Towards the Sea, a story centered around Ivona and Vlaho, two people bound by their love for one another despite the devastation that follows their lives.
How the German language is changing to become more gender-inclusive
ALEXANDRA TURNBULL
German, like many other languages, uses a gender-based system which employs feminine, masculine or neutral words. Each German noun falls into one of these three, with words having counterparts for both male and female participants. Is this sustainable?
The subtle flood in Kayleigh Campbell’s ‘The Body Knows’
POEM OF THE MONTH | JOSEPH BLYTHE
Campbell is one of those poets who manages to sit simplicity and complexity side by side, arm in arm. Casual enjoyers of poetry – those who read a few with a morning cup of tea or evening tumbler of whisky – would be able to pick up any one of Campbell’s works, turn to a random page, and get some enjoyment out of a swift once-over of a couple of poems.
Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s search for Caribbean poetry
MÓNICA FERNÁNDEZ JIMÉNEZ
In postcolonial lands, there is a strange and delicate balance between literary theory and literary production, a battlefield as fraught as the relationship between nationalism and literature. Before Postmodernism, one might have claimed that literature comes first, and that the literary historian simply recorded what they saw. Today, we are not so naive as to believe intellectual production does not influence the words of authors. Is the nationalist agenda, especially in once-colonised countries, a prescriptivist hindrance to authentic production or a mobilising creative force?
Am I a writer?
CHLOE MILNE
Every time someone asks, “So, what do you do?” I hesitate. I want to say writer, but the word often draws pity, disbelief, or that classic follow-up: “Oh, so what’s your real job?” Why is being a creative professional, especially a female writer, still met with skepticism?
In awe and fright of modernity in Train Dreams and 'Crossing Brooklyn Ferry'
J.A.G. MABBUTT
Cinema is moving forward whether we are ready or not. Netflix’s interventions may unsettle traditional screens, but they also bring new stories, visions, opportunities for us to witness the world afresh. In this instance, we're talking about Train Dreams.
Can We Build Ourselves Beyond The Violence That Created Us?
INÉS PARIS ARRANZ
This debut novel by Alice Evelyn Yang, A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing, is a historical family saga that weaves together the stories of a village, a lineage, and the monsters that haunt them. It is also a story about belonging and migration. The novel is circular in structure: the present continually slips into the past, and memory blends with myth until the boundaries dissolve. Within that frame, Yang explores nature and magic realism, women’s roles, political violence, and cultural loss.
Desire, longing and dreams in Queer and 'Love and Sleep'
J.A.G. MABBUTT
Algernon Charles Swinburne’s poem, 'Love and Sleep', and Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 film, Queer, both explore longing as something that thrives in fantasy rather than reality. In each work, desire retreats into dreams when reciprocity fails, transforming love into projection and comfort into obsession.
Can a file ever hold a person?
MILLIE HARRIS
When a photograph of Lea Ypi’s grandmother, Leman, was posted on social media by a total stranger, she becomes determined to discover who her grandmother truly was, an endeavour that sounds simple in theory. However, Indignity: A Life Reimagined is not a simple story.
Redefining the mother in Saba Sams' Gunk
JOCELYN HOWARTH
Alone in Brighton with a crying baby, Jules, a divorcée, reflects on the nine months since Nim (a 19-year-old entangled with her ex-husband) left her life.
Depression, chaos, and clarity in Melancholia and Coney Island of the Mind 8
J.A.G. MABBUTT
Do depressed people react better to disaster? Do they inhabit a calmness that is lacking in others? Is judgment day just another day in the calendar of someone who is possessed by melancholy? These questions orbited Lars Von Trier’s head enough for him to make a film that offers us some answers.
The fabric of the soul through the eyes of a poet
dean j. hill & heidi kewin
Szombathely is a town located near the Austrian-Hungarian border, and is also the place of poet and journalist Róbert Nagy. It’s a place more than 2000 years old, founded by the Romans in 43 AD, and one that continues to shape Róbert’s way of seeing the world around him. A journalist by profession and a poet by practice, Róbert brings a careful attention to detail in anything he writes.
Yōko Agawa's 'The Memory Police' is atmosphere over substance
millie harris
An unnamed narrator is living on an island where entire categories of items vanish overnight. Enforcing these disappearances is the titular 'Memory Police' who ensure the island’s inhabitants obediently forget what they must. The concept itself is fascinating and rich with potential. Yet, for all its intriguing premise, the execution leaves something to be desired, creating an experience simultaneously captivating and frustrating.
'I Kicked A Mushroom', The Green Knight and human transgression
J.A.G. MABBUTT
A comparative piece focusing on the human transgression - which is, more often than not, aggressive - in Simon Armitage's poem I Kicked a Mushroom and the film The Green Knight.
Hamnet wants to break your heart. Does it earn it?
MILLIE HARRIS
The book was instantly acclaimed and praised as O’Farrell’s finest work to date, celebrated for its historical intimacy and named among the most notable books of 2020. It is a story on how one of the greatest works in the English canon, Hamlet, might have been derived from such a truly heartbreaking and life-changing experience.
Scent, possession, and death
JOCELYN HOWARTH
Patrick Süskind's Perfume imagines a world in which everyone is only using a small fraction of their nose’s purpose, while the protagonist, Grenouille, can identify every note in even the most complex of perfumes, can track people through the streets of Paris, and even know how many people are in a room purely through the use of his nose. It is a superpower, but for Grenouille it is also a curse.
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Depression, Chaos, and Clarity in Melancholia and Coney Island of the Mind 8
Do depressed people react better to disaster? Do they inhabit a calmness that is lacking in others? Is judgment day just another day in the calendar of someone who is possessed by melancholy? These questions orbited Lars Von Trier’s head enough for him to make a movie that offers us some answers.
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Our magazine subscription runs both annual or quarterly depending on your preference. You'll get four delicious print issues of Zimmer Magazine delivered to your doorstep without all the hassle. Thanks for being here.
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Vincent Zimmer
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