A photo of Rivers Solomon, author of Sorrowland, on a colourful background side-by-side with the interview title, 21 Questions, on a blue and grayscale background.

Main-21-Questions-Rivers-Solomon-1800×1200.jpg

Interviews

‘Write what terrifies you’: 21 Questions with Rivers Solomon

Sorrowland

"A wonderland of fantastical and frightening, magical and real." Marlon James 
"A fantastical, fierce reckoning... Sorrowland is gorgeous." Roxanne Gay 
"Dark, magical and incredibly satisfying." Independent 
"An exhilarating journey to the outer limits of science fiction." Guardian. 
 
--- 
 
Vern, a hunted woman alone in the woods, gives birth to twins and raises them 
away from the influence of the outside world. But something is wrong - not with 
them, but with her own body. It's changing, it's itching, it's stronger, it's... not 
normal. 
 
 
To understand her body's metamorphosis, Vern must investigate not just the 
secluded religious compound she fled but the violent history of dehumanization, 
medical experimentation, and genocide that produced it. In the course of 
reclaiming her own darkness, Vern learns that monsters aren't just individuals, 
but entire histories, systems, and nations. 
 
 
Sorrowland is a memorable work of Gothic fiction that wrestles with the tangled 
history of racism in America and the marginalisation of society's undesirables. It 
is a searing, seminal book that marks the arrival of a bold, unignorable voice in 
American fiction.

A fantastical, fierce reckoning ... Sorrowland is gorgeous, and the writing, the storytelling, are magnificent. This country has a dark history of what it's willing to do to black bodies, and Rivers Solomon lays that truth bare in a most unexpected, absolutely brilliant way.

Sorrowland is a wonderland of fantastical and frightening, magical and real. At the centre of this world and leaping off the page is Vern: unstoppable, unforgettable, and unlike anyone you have ever seen before.

Marlon James, Booker Prize-winning author

Dark, magical, and incredibly satisfying, Sorrowland is a fantastical tale that grapples with America's history of racism and marginalised communities ... This gripping gender-bending yarn from UK-based American author Rivers Solomon is yet another fine offering from Stormzy's #Merky Books.

An exhilarating journey to the outer limits of science fiction, steeped in the southern gothic tradition and grounded in the physical and social realities of being poor, powerless, black and female in America ... A furious, justified anger drives this novel, drawing on the US history of racial oppression, but it's also joyful and wildly entertaining.

A gothic techno-thriller in which the trauma of the past is parried with defiance and a thirst for understanding, as embodied by an electrifying young hero ... A stirring sense of the epic animates this striking novel ... This capaciousness is echoed in the sheer range of Sorrowland's timely preoccupations ... Its frame of reference is generous - in some ways, it's clearly rooted in Afrofuturism, owing plenty to Octavia Butler, but it nods as well to Giovanni's Room, Robin Hood and folklore from multiple cultures.

A stirring sense of the epic animates this striking novel. Anything that remains of Vern's faith is rooted in the vastness of life, and when she meets her nemesis, it's only fitting that it should turn out to be a creature "so looming that being next to it was like falling". This capaciousness is echoed in the sheer range of Sorrowland's timely preoccupations. It's about escape, self-acceptance and queer love. It's about genocide and the exploitation of black bodies, selfdelusion and endemic corruption, motherhood and inheritance. Its frame of reference is generous - in some ways, it's clearly rooted in Afrofuturism, but it nods as well to Giovanni's Room , Robin Hood and folklore from multiple cultures.

Rivers Solomon's Sorrowland (2021) is a powerful and vital work of speculative fiction, one with its roots in the gothic past but with tendrils reaching out beyond the limits of the New Weird... Uncompromising, haunting and unforgettable, Solomon has crafted a modern masterpiece of fantastic fiction.

[T]his twisty adventure, in which the blood-and-guts thrills and breathy sex scenes ultimately act as a delivery mechanism for an urgent affirmation of the necessity of social justice.

A furious utopia. Utterly compelling, brilliant and terrifying. Sorrowland seizes the history of white supremacy, racist medical experimentation, and the dream - and danger - of the commune and gnashes it into something magnificent and truly reparative. An epic fantasy that interweaves righteous, large-scale confrontations with power, extremely sexy and moving erotic gothic horror, and exquisite, meticulous renderings of the daily life of parenting. This is a fairy tale for adults, spangled in the wreckage of the world. A gorgeous, singular, and profound work.

Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox

The writing is visceral and soul-clenching. The characters - bold, creative, and memorable. The action, heart-stopping. This is imaginative storytelling at its finest. Once I started, I could not put down Sorrowland until I reached the end. And then I wanted more!

Sorrowland is a raw, powerful, and visceral read. Nature, joy, science, belonging, human metamorphosis, generational oppression, strength, and sheer lust for life: if Toni Morrison, M. Night Shyamalan, and Marge Piercy got together they might, if they were lucky, produce something with the unstoppable exhilaration of this novel. Sorrowland is sui generis.

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon contains so much wisdom and insight, wrapped in an abundance of passion and fury and tenderness. There is so much going on in this book: the spectre of what happens when rebellion is co-opted, our longstanding practice of using Black bodies for cruel and unethical experiments, the audacity of queer love. The arc of this book takes Vern and her babies away from civilization and then back to it - but they return changed, and they change everyone else, and this book restored my faith in our potential to transform just when I needed it most.

Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky

Lee Child on An Unkindness of Ghosts: Immediately immersive and sophisticated. This is a phenomenal piece of work.

On An Unkindness of Ghosts: Solomon debuts with a raw distillation of slavery, feudalism, prison, and religion that kicks like rotgut moonshine...Stunning.

Infused with the spirit of Octavia Butler and loaded with meaning for the present day, An Unkindness of Ghosts will appeal to a wide variety of readers. Solomon's impassioned, speculative, literary book is sorely needed on library shelves.

On An Unkindness of Ghosts: What Solomon achieves with this debut - the sharpness, the depth, the precision - puts me in mind of a syringe full of stars. I want to say about this book, its only imperfection is that it ended.

Dark and magical, Sorrowland is a fantastical tale that grapples with America's history of racism and marginalised communities

Solomon captures Vern's journey in a gripping narrative that is equal parts speculative fiction and Gothic tale, all while unravelling a fictional world that is not dissimilar to our own, particularly in its depiction of racism and white supremacy.

SORROWLAND is a highly atmospheric, addictive read.

Rivers Solomon writes about life in the margins, where they're much at home. Their work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. They are the author of An Unkindness of Ghosts, The Deep, and Sorrowland. A refugee of the transatlantic slave trade, Solomon was born on Turtle Island. They currently live in the UK.

"A fantastical, fierce reckoning... Sorrowland is gorgeous." Roxanne Gay 
 
"Dark, magical and incredibly satisfying." Independent 
 
"An exhilarating journey to the outer limits of science fiction." Guardian. 
 
"Epic!" Observer 
 
Vern, a hunted woman alone in the woods, who gives birth to twins and raises them away from the influence of the outside world. But something is wrong - not with them, but with her own body. It's changing, it's itching, it's stronger, it's... not normal. 
 
Sorrowland is a memorable work of Gothic fiction that wrestles with the tangled history of racism in America, by the end Vern learns that monsters aren't just individuals, but entire histories, systems, and nations.

Rivers Solomon

'Intense, original, and wonderfully unpredictable, those adjectives describe Rivers Solomon as much as this novel. Model Home is a story of a haunted house and haunted people; profound family secrets lie at the heart of this book as well as, surprisingly, blessedly, meaningful touches of love and hope. Rivers Solomon is an astonishingly talented writer.'

‘A startling reimagination of the haunted-house genre. The twists and turns are carefully drawn, with the tension mounting toward a shocking end … With this exhilarating and unforgettable work, Solomon proves to be a formidable writer.’

'A profoundly haunting work of true horror from one of the greatest writers working today.'

author of Just Like Home and Magic for Liars

'Fueled by unreliable narrator Ezri’s grief, Solomon’s (Sorrowland, 2021) lyrical slow burn is a disquieting and disorienting rumination on heavy themes including racism, mental illness, gender dysphoria, and sexual abuse. The ambiguity of Ezri’s reflections will keep readers turning the pages to find out what really happened to the Maxwell siblings, whose traumatic childhoods continue to haunt them long after they leave home. Solomon’s genre-defying achievement subverts and reclaims the tropes of the gothic haunted house to create something wholly original and unforgettable.'

'This is easily one of the best books I’ve read in the last five or so years. Beastly storytelling from page one. Moving. Gnawing. Alive. Complete with claws and a heart and lungs in it. Consider me sucked in! My favorite part of this work doubles as a kind of spoiler: its genius does not, even for the sake of mercy, relent.'

'A stylish, simmering novel about identity, race and family secrets.’

'A disturbing, brilliantly twisty psychological horror exploring family dynamics, memory, gender identity and sexuality.'

Rivers Solomon

Books by Rivers Solomon

Articles featuring Rivers Solomon

‘Write what terrifies you’: 21 Questions with Rivers Solomon

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter