Apsara Engine
Apsara Engine by Bishakh Som, published by Feminist Press in 2020, is a collection of eight stories that explore the intersection of reality and imagination. This edition, comprising 237 pages, presents a unique blend of comics and graphic novel elements, showcasing Som’s debut work of fiction. The narratives delve into themes of love, identity, and the complexities of contemporary life, featuring characters who navigate surreal experiences and emotional landscapes.
Readers will encounter a variety of intriguing scenarios, including a woman reflecting on a past relationship and a nonbinary academic investigating postcolonial themes. The stories are enriched by rich, sepia-toned watercolors that enhance the eerie and thought-provoking atmosphere. Apsara Engine engages with subjects such as feminism, LGBTQ identities, and social science, offering a nuanced perspective on diverse futures and mythologies. This collection invites readers to reflect on the familiar yet alien aspects of twenty-first-century existence.
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Winner of the 2020 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics
Winner of the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Comics
Finalist for the 2021 Ferro-Grumley Literary Award for LGBTQ Fiction
The eight delightfully eerie stories in Apsara Engine are a subtle intervention into everyday reality. A woman drowns herself in a past affair, a tourist chases another guest into an unforeseen past, and a nonbinary academic researches postcolonial cartography. Imagining diverse futures and rewriting old mythologies, these comics delve into strange architectures, fetishism, and heartbreak.
Painted in rich, sepia-toned watercolors, Apsara Engine is Bishakh Som’s highly anticipated debut work of fiction. Showcasing a series of fraught, darkly humorous, and seemingly alien worlds–which ring all too familiar–Som captures the weight of twenty-first-century life as we hurl ourselves forward into the unknown.
“An astonishing collection of stories that expand and pulse into galaxy-sized moments of strangeness and wonder.” –Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble
“Som has created a collection of short stories that dance between genres and identities, moving from incisive descriptions of modern social realities to poetic ruminations on the future. This anthology by an up-and-coming comics superstar, which centers queer and trans South Asian narratives, is precisely what we need right now.” –Them
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