This was a "I know I'll love this book so I'll procrastinate reading it until I need it" kind of book, and this review is a "I loved the book and idk how to write a review that does it justice" kind of review.

Autofiction meets magic realism meets brutal depictions of deep human pain meets intergenerational trauma meets cultural interpretations of historical events etc etc etc. commentary on human intimacy, mental health, morality, false duality of victim and perpetrator, quantum physics, linearity of time, importance of stories, parasocial relationships, proximity of history, etc etc etc.

I annotated so much of this book and really took my time with it, and I recommend that you read this slowly should you pick it up.

If you liked this book, please read the book of form and emptiness (you'll love it), and/or some of Jonathan Safran Foer's fiction for more of these themes. If you liked those books, you'll probably like this.

In short: highly recommended if you're into any and all the themes described above, enjoy being sad while reading, and are ok with a little bit of woo-woo dream logic and graphic depictions of violence that humans inflict on other humans. Five bright stars.