Transactions (Ali Alizadeh, UQP)

Ali Alizadeh’s critically acclaimed book of poetry Ashes in the Air was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards last year and I would be surprised if Transactions doesn’t receive similar attention, as it is a powerful work of prose fiction. Through a series of interconnected stories, Alizadeh has created a truly global and uncompromisingly frank narrative, spanning the Red Light District in Amsterdam; various war-torn countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan; an Iranian prison; and a British literary festival. His characters are often caught between East and West and dwell in the harsh fringes of a cultural collision. A Ukrainian sex worker, a spoilt Emirati teenager, an Iranian asylum seeker and a young woman seeking bloody retribution for her mother’s death—among others— are characters glimpsed and yet fully realised through Alizadeh’s poetic yet direct storytelling. Cruelty is spliced with humour, such as the story set in a Melbourne theatre company, in which hilariously terrible dialogue captures the power dynamics being played out to much greater effect elsewhere. The stories intersect in surprising ways: a character reads a book of poetry, later we meet the poet, and even later we find her new book shortlisted for a farcically judged literary prize. This is a challenging and surprising collection from a talented writer.

Portia Lindsay is a former bookseller who now works at the NSW Writers’ Centre

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews